Historical account of the substances which have been used to describe events, and to convey ideas from the earliest date to the invention of paper

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HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

SUBSTANCES

WHICH HAYS ftEEN USED TO

DESCRIBE EVENTS, AND TO CONVEY IDEAS,

FROM THE

EARLIEST DATE

TO THE

INVENTION OF PAPER.

SECOND EDITION.

PRINTED ON PAPER MANUFACTURED SOLELY FROM STRAW,

V

Bij MATTHIAS KOOPS, Esq,

LONDON:

PRINTED BY JAOJ78S AND CO. LOMBARD STR8ET, FLEET STREET.

TO

HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY

KING

THE UNITED KINGDOMS

GREAT-BRITAIN

AKD

IRELAND.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

Sire,

Your Majesty having been
Moft Gracioufly pleafed to grant me
Patents for extra&ing printing and
writing ink from wafte Paper, by re^
ducing it to a pulp, and converting it
into white Papery fit for writing, print-
ing, and for other purpofes ; and alfo
for manufacturing Paper from Straw,
Hay, Thiftles, wafte and refufe of
Hemp and Flax, and different kinds
of Wood and Bark, fit for printing,
and almoft all other purpofes for which
Paper is ufed,

And

[ iv ]

And Your Majesty having in
September lait year condefcended to
permit me to lay at Your feet the
firft ufeful Paper which has ever been
made from Straw alone* without any
addition of rags ; the Gracious Recep-
tion it has met with from Your Ma-
jesty, the approbation of the Publick,
and the encouragement which the
Legislature has given me by palling
an AS: of Parliament in its favour has
engaged me to reprint thefe lines on
Paper manufactured from Straw folely
in a more improved ftate, although not
yet brought to fuch a flate of perfec-
tion as it will be made in a regular
manufacture, which muft be entirely

* Part of this Edition is printed on Straw Paper.

conftrucled

[ v ]

conftru&ed for fuch purpofe, and which
I moft humbly flatter myfelf will now
much fooner be eftablilhed by the
indulgence which Your Majesty's
Parliament has granted me. This new
Effay proves, there cannot be any
doubt that good and ufeful Paper can
be made from Straw alone.

The favourable manner in which
Your Majesty has deigned to look
on thefe my humble attempts of dis-
covery mail be a conftant incitement
to future exertions, and the profpe<5l
of meriting commendation of a King,
always ready to countenance the moft
humble endeavours which tend to the
common welfare, and who has proved

Hirnfelf

[ vi J

Himfelf the Illuftrious Patron and
Protector of Arts and Sciences, obliges
me to unremitted perfeverance to
bring my attempts to perfection, in the
profpeft of meriting Your Majesty's
commendation, which will be the
greateft pleafure I can be fenfible of.

With the moil ardent wifhes for
YotJR Majesty's health and longevity,
and with all poffible deference and
humility, I beg leave, Most Gracious
Sovereign, to fubfcribe myfelf,

YOUR MAJESTY'S

molt devoted,

moft obedient,
and moft humble Servant,

i ;, James-ftreet,

Buckingham-gate, MATTHIAS KOOPS.

Auguft30, 1801.

Ihe art of Paper-making ought to be
regarded as one of the mod ufeful which
has ever been invented in any age or
country ; for it is manifeft, that every other
difcovery mult have continued ufelefs to
fociety if it could not have been diffe-
minated by manufcripts, or by printing.

Scientific men, who were neither artifts
nor manufacturers, have, by means of this
invention, been enabled to communicate
their projects, which mechanics have after-
wards improved and perfected, and by this
means enriched the commonwealth.

B

[ 8 ]
Without the ufe of Paper, geography
and navigation muft have been very incor-
rectly underftood; the beautiful charts of
the ocean fo accurately laid down have
eftablifhed our commercial intercourfe with
every part of the globe with fafety ; at
the fame time that the delineations upon
maps of places, rivers, and countries, are
now fo correct, that they enable a traveller
to proceed without danger, and even pre-
dict, with certainty, the time it will require
to convey him to any part of the globe.

It may be alTerted, indeed, of this coun-
try, that its grandeur and commercial
dignity have been greatly exalted by the
invention of Paper; for it is prefumed,
that the fuperiority which diftinguifhes
the manufactures of this Ifland, chiefly
depends upon the liberal publications
concentered from all the reft of the
world, which have fo greatly increafed
in latter years, and which are likely

farther

[ 9 ]

farther to be augmented. It is, in fhort,
the reputation of the goods fabricated in
Great-Britain, which has elevated it to
the fplendour and fame it now poffefles,
in the fcale of nations, and enables it
to monopolize the trade of the uni-
verfe. — All thefe are benefits which have
flowed from the invention of Paper, and
which have fo largely contributed to the
prefent flourifhing ftate of the country.

What infinite trouble and labour, what
a fruitlefs confumption of time has not
been faved by the knowledge of Paper!
how many laborious and dangerous ex-
periments have not philosophical projec-
tors been fpared ! what labour of invef-
tigation and ftudy have not been abridged
by the events which the experiments of
others have handed down to pofterity!
thereby affording to the prefent age a
body of information more than adequate
to the knowledge any one man could
B 2 have

have attained to in a thoufand years,
with all his faculties.

This reflection alone muft fix fuch an
impreflion on any thinking mind of the
invaluable utility of Paper, as to render
any further commendation unnecefTary ;
but in fhort, the inventions of Paper and
Printing have been the caufes of the various
gradations of improvement in every art and
fcience. Without it, the prefent age would
neither have been more civilized nor wifer
than it was many centuries ago, becaufc
one age could never have conveyed to its
pofterity what the labours of the pafl had
atchieved ; for it is well known that, in
dark and barbarous ages, the inhabitants
of no country have ever made any progrefs
towards improvement and civilization with-
out the ufe of Writing, Printing, and
Paper ; and it feems very probable, that
the early knowledge of this article amongft
the Chinefe has been the caufe of thofe

acquire-

C 11 ]

acquirements which have diftinguifhed that
truly wonderful nation : for it may be
affirmed, that in proportion to the quantity
of Paper confumed, by any Hated number
of inhabitants in literary purfuits, fo will
be their comparative information, civilized
ftate, and improvement.

To enumerate all the various advan-
tages which the invention of Paper has
afforded mankind, could not be contained
in an Eflay of this nature : its ufes are
unqueftionable ; and the important fervices
it has yielded to all countries where it has
been employed are not to be calculated ;
it is fufficient to fay here, that the growing
youth are educated with facility in the
principles of their duty, and barbarous
dates have been foftened and enlightened
by means of this difcovery.

Although this fubjecl might be much

enlarged upon, the intention of this Ad-

b 3 dre^s

[ 12 ]

drefs is moft humbly to prefent . to Your
Mqft Gracious Majejiy the firfi ufeful Paper
manufactured folely from Straw, and on
which thefe lines are printed ,

From the remarks which have been
already made, every perfon muft be con-
vinced, that it is of the utmoft confe-
quence to prevent the fcarcity of the
materials from which Paper is to be fabri-
cated. Although cotton has been likewife
ufed for this purpofe, paper-makers in this
country have depended on linen Rags for
the regular purfuit of their employment.

All Europe has of late years experienced
an extraordinary fcarcity of this article,
but no country has been fo much injured
by it as England. The greatly advanced
price, and the abfolute fcarcity, equally
operating to obstruct many printing-prefTes
in this kingdom; and various works re-
main, for thefe reafons, unpublifhed, which

might

[ 13 ]

might have proved very ferviceable to the
community.

The great demands for Paper in this
country have rendered it neceffary to be
fupplied from the continent with Rags.
This fupply is extremely precarious, and
is likely to be more wanted as the con-
fumption of Paper increafes, becaufe this
material, which is the bafis of Paper, is not
to be obtained in England in fufficient
quantity. The evil confequence of not
having a due fupply of Rags has been
the ftoppage of a number of Paper-
mills ; and as it is a manufactory which
requires numerous hands (of men, women,
and children) ; a great number of them
have been thrown upon their refpeclive
parilhes for want of employment. A ftill
more important confideration, in the view
of commerce, prefents itfelf, when the
raw material comes from abroad, becaufe
the importation of it is paid in hard cafh,
b 4 the

[ 1* ]

the preparation of which might have em-
ployed numbers of idle hands at home
advantageoufly.

Thefe reflections induced me to make
various experiments, with a view to remedy,
in fome degree, this evil ; and, after many
trials, I have the fatisfaction to remark,
that I have difcovered feveral fubftitutes
for linen Rags, which have been hereto-
fore untried and unknown, and which will
merit the attention of the public. One
of thefe difcoveries is the Art of extract-
ing Printing and Writing Ink from Wafte
Paper, whether in fmall or large pieces,
l>y obliterating the ink, and rendering the
Paper perfectly white, without injuring the
texture of the regenerated Paper, and of a
quality as good as it originally was, for
the purpofes of writing and re-printing.

It is worthy of the directors of families

to order their fervants to fave all the wafte

White

f 15 ]

White Paper, fuch as letters and old
writing-paper, which are generally thrown
away or burnt, and regarded as of no
confequence; for, fhould this be attended
to, very confiderable quantities would be
collected, and large fums of money faved,
which are now expended in foreign coun-
tries for Rags ; becaufe, if we calculate
that Great Britain contains fifteen hundred
thoufand families, and that half a meet of
Paper iliould be daily faved in every
family, it would produce four thoufand
four hundred tons,* which is about one-
third of the quantity of Rags which have,
of late, been converted annually into
Paper in this country ; whereby near two
hundred thoufand pounds would annually
remain in this country, which fum is now
fent abroad for the purchafe of Rags; and
eighty -two thoufand one hundred and
twenty-live pounds would be faved from

* A ream, or five hundred fleets, being calculated
at eighteen pounds weight.

fire

[ I« ]

fire and definition, calculating a pound
of old Paper torn into pieces at two pence.

It has been imagined, that the prefent
war has principally contributed to produce
the icarcity of Paper-fluff, which, how-
ever, does not appear to be the fole
caufe, becaufe the quantity of Rags ufed
for making lint is very inconfiderable,
compared to ^he enormous quantity at
prefent ufed for the manufacture of Paper.
Cartridges have ufually been made on the
continent of old written Paper, which
heretofore has been of no other ufe to
Paper-makers than for the fabrication of
pafte-boards. — It appears, from various
confiderations, that the fcarcity has ori-
ginated from the extenfion of learning,
which occafions much larger quantities
of Paper for writing and printing ; the
large increafe of newfpapers and monthly
publications. Additional ftationers, prin-
ters, and bookfellers, countenance this

opinion*

[ 17 ]

opinion. More children are now every
where taught to read and write; and the
hand-bills of every defcription, ufed for
mopkeepers, plays, quackery, and other
trades, require additional quantities of
Paper. Paper-hanging, which is an in-
vention of the middle of the feventeenth
century, has, of late years, become more
general ; and few new-built houfes are
finifhed with walls, or wainfcot, as for-
merly, but the furface is every where
decorated with painted or ftained Paper,
which is the moil beautiful, the cleaneft,
and the cheaper!: ornament for furnifhing
rooms.

I beg leave to obferve, that little general
knowledge, upon this ufeful fubjecl, has
been hitherto communicated to the public;
I, therefore, will endeavour to give a brief
hiftorical account of the various methods
and materials which have been ufed to
convey ideas to pofterity, from the moll

ancient

[ '» ]

ancient date to the period when the art of
making Paper, from linen rags, was in-
vented.

The art of writing, in itfelf, proves that
mankind, at the time of its invention,
mall: already have been in a certain de-
gree civilized, and cannot therefore be
very ancient ; but the exact time when
this art was difcovered is impoflible to
be traced.

The invention of letters, and their various
combinations, in the forming of words in
any language, has fomething fo ingenious
and wonderful in it, that moft who have
treated thereof, can hardly forbear attri-
buting it to a divine original, and fpeaking
of it with fuch a high admiration which
is not far from a kind of rapture. Indeed,
if we confider of what vail, and even daily
fervice it is to mankind, it mud be certainly
allowed to be one of the greate/i, and moft

furprizing

[ 19 1

fur prizing difcoveries that ever was made
in the world. No perfon can deny of
what general ufe the art of writing is in
commerce ; in contracts of every kind ; in
preferving, improving, and propagating
learning and knowledge ; in communi-
cating our fentiments to, and correfpond-
ing with our friends, with thofe we love,
or others, at any diftance, whither letters
can be conveyed. And by the means of
writing, as the moft valuable of all its
advantages, we have a code of divine laws,
ufeful hiftory, indifputable revelations, as
a conftant direftory for our conduct, in
our courfe through this probationary flate
of life, to a happy eternity.

Notwithstanding thefe great and mani-
fold benefits, which men have all along
received from this curious and wonderful
invention, it is very remarkable, that
writing, which gives fome degree of immor-
tality

t 20 ]

tality to almoft all other things, mould be,
by the difpofal of Divine Providence, fo
ordered, as to be carelefs in preferving the
memory of its firlt founders. No archives
are preferved, wherein the names of thofe
perfons are repofited, that have deferved
fo much of mankind, by inventing the
characters, and alphabets, proper to exprefs
their own language and thoughts! If
we enquire only after our own country
way of writing, who can tell us the
names of thofe ingenious men, that firft
found out the alphabets ufed in our. offices
of records, or indeed any hand in ufe
amongfl: us?

Some make objections to this boafted
utility of writing, and likewife to the
new-difcovered fubftitutes for Paper-ftuff,
by which the quantity of Paper, unavoid-
ably neceflary for writing, will be fo
greatly encreafed. They alledge, that

the

[ 21 ]

the inconveniencies, and evils,* that letters
are the caufes of, are equal to, if not
more, than the advantages that arife there-
from. Vicious and libertine books, fay
they, are the lading fources of corruption
in faith and morals. By the means of
Paper and writing, falfe notions in religion,
and even highly irritating herefies are
broached, and fpeedily propagated; trai-
torous correfpondencies are held, and de-
ceitful contrivances are carried on to the
ruin of private families, and often to the
deilruclion of happinefs in wedlock; and
fometimes to the fubverfion of public ad-
ministrations and government, which we

* N. Tate, Poet Laureat in Queen Amies time,
wrote the following lines on the good and evil of
/Writing.

View writing's art, that like a fovereign Queen

Amongft her fubje£ts faiences are feen;

As fhe in dignity the reft tranfcends,

So far her power of good and harm extends;

And ftrange effe&s in both from her we find,

The Pallas and Pandora of mankind.

have

[ 22 ]
have in late years experienced in the
major part of Europe. — It is certain that
much mifchief has arifen from Paper and
Writing ; and yet what is it but faying,
that the pen is as dangerous an inftrument
in the world as the tongue? mult we
therefore renounce the ufe of the one, as
well as the other? This would be a fana-
tical extreme, that all perfons of common
fenfe and common prudence will avoid
and abhor : for it is evident, that it is not
the proper ufe, but the abufe of the art,
that is objected againft.

Lycurgus, a king of Thrace, obferving
the bad effects of wine amongft fuch of
his fubjecls who drank it to excefs, had
all the vines in his kingdom cut down,
and deftroyed. Can any one applaud that
king's contrivance, as a piece of wifdom?
or was it not rather a fooliih and frantic
act? The fame muft be applied to the
above fubject; for as there is hardly any

one

I 23 ]

one ufeful and good thing in the world but
what may be perverted to bad purpofes;
fo the abufe of Paper and Writing is a
poor argument agaimt the general and
great utility thereof. There have been
fome perfons like Lycurgus, of Thrace ,
of this erroneous way of reafoning, with
regard to letters; T/tamus, an ancient
Egyptian king, as is ftated in Plato's Phce-
drus, remonttrated agaimt the ufe thereof;
as alfo againft the reception of the ufeful
parts of the mathematics, when Theut
offered to introduce them amongft his
fubjecls. Lkinhis, a Roman emperor like-
wife, was a great enemy to letters, and
ufed men of learning and philofophers
with outrageous cruelty, calling them the
bane and peji of jbciety. But thefe mull
be looked upon as the extravagant po-
tions and whims of ignorant perfons who
obftinately glory to deviate from common
ienfe and the judgment of mankind; and
therefore ought to be no further regarded,

c than

[ 24 ]

than for their Angularity, and the abfurd
confequences that attend them.

Another pretext againft the ufe of Paper
and Writing feems to be more plaufible
than the former is, that it is an encourage-
ment to a. lazy difpofition. The objector
fays, if we truft too much to books, or only
write out what we ought to commit to
our memories, we may in that be faid to
lean to a broken ftaff ; and be apt to ima-
gine ourfelves more learned and knowing
than in reality we are. It is not the pof-
feffion of an extenfive and beautiful library
with learned books that makes a man wife
and learned ; nor a fuperficial manner of
reading them over, or even making extracts
from them, by way of a common memo-
randum book, that will enable us to fpeak
pertinently upon fubjecls, of which we
wifh to have the appearance to be matters.
Nothing but a fund in the memory, a
large ftock of good obfervations, and the

real

[ 25 ]

real bafis of knowledge, gained by diligence
and experience carefully gathered and laid
up there, can enable us to fet up as traders
in literature. Otherwife, we fuppofe our-
felves to be great fcholars in the fame
manner as an empty, vain-glorious man,
whom Seneca mentions, did: (Calvifius
Sabinus). As he was rich, he hired into his
houfe feveral fervants, that were well
qualified in feveral forts of learning; and
on this Jiock he fet up for a perfon of
erudition; fo that he could refolve by them
almoft any queftion in the circle of litera-
ture that was ftarted amongft his vifitants.

Juft fo may be faid, that the relying on
books, the product of writing on Paper,
gives the mind a turn to an indolent habit ;
and takes it off from that induftrious purfuit
and attention, by which a mature know-
ledge of arts and fciences are the mod
properly and furely gained. This objec-
tion muft be allowed in its full force, but
c 2 never*

[ 2« ]

neverthelefs the knowledge of letters can-
not be the real caufe of fuch indolence, or
deficiency in the improvement of our na-
tural powers and faculties. The noble
inventions of Paper and writing can, there-
fore, by no means be accufed of encou-
raging floth or negligence ; but, if it be
made a right ufe of, it is undeniably of
fpecial afliftance to mankind in their
literary purfuits and acquifitions. For
where is the memory, however well cul-
tivated, that does not fail the owner fome-
times in particular circumftances ? and
then to have recourfe to the fubfidiary
aid of writing on Paper, muft be allowed
to be of fingular advantage. A perfon may
fometimes remember very well a quotation,
or a ftory, but may, even for the moment,
not be able to recollect the author's name,
which is often required to an illuftration ;
is in fuch inftance a good library therefore
not a beneficial refource ? Is here not fully
proved the ufefulnefs of Paper and Wri-
ting?

[ 27 ]

ting? Let none, therefore, lay that blame
upon the ufe thereof, which more juftly
belongs to their own wrong way of rea-
foning; for it can no way encourage idle-
nefs, but rather opens and exhibits an
ample field, in which the indubious may
advantageoufly employ themfelves with ho*
nour and credit, if it be applied to the
various good purpofes for which it is moft
truly adapted.

Mr. Robert More gives a definition of
writing in the following words: Writing,
(fays he, in his fhort eflfay upon the invent
tion thereof,) is fuck a reprefentation of our
words, but more permanent, as our words are
(or ought to be) of our thoughts. He ftates
that the various combinations of twenty-
four letters (and none of them repeated)
will amount to

620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000.*

* Thefe figures are right ; and I join here, for the

ufe of thofe who wifh to be informed, the calculation,

c 3 which

[ 28 ]

Writing, in the moft ancient language

that

which is done by multiplying all the twenty-four
figures one with another.

362880
by 10

3628800
by 11

39916800
by 12

479001600

by 13

6227020800
fry 14

87178291200

[ 29 1

that we know of, is called Dikduk Gnat,

which

87178291200
by V5

1307674368000

by 16

20922789888000

J>y »7

■ 355687428096000

by 18

6402373705728000

*>y 19

121645100408832000
by 20

2432902008176640000
by 21

51090942171709440000
by 22

1 124000727777607680000
by 23

25852016738884976640000

by 24

620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000

Clavius, the Jefuit, who alfo computed thefe com-
binations, makes the number to be but

5,852,616,738,497,664,000
which feems to be an error of the prefs, and that he
calculates only 23 letters in his alphabet, and the mif-
printing appears only in a few figures

25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000
C 4

[ 30 ]

which it is faid fignifies a fubtle invention;
and fo it really is, and appears to be, if
we do but reflecl:, as Tully obferves in
his Tufculan Que/lions, that the founds of
the voice, which are in a manner infinite,
are reprefented by a few marks or characters,
which we call letters, Thefe letters in He-
brew are called Othioth, nwnx, that is,
Signs; being the figns, or reprefentations
of our words, as is expreffed in the fore-
going definition.

But it may not be amifs here to take
notice, that it is not absolutely neceflary
that there mould be juft fuch a precife
number of letters, twenty-four, neither
more or lefs, to exprefs ail the words in
a language. The alphabets of various
languages fhew the contrary. The Hebrew,
Samaritan, and Syviac, have twenty-two;
the Arabic, twenty-eight ; the Perfic, and
Egyptian or Coptic, thirty-two; the pre-
fent Ruffian, forty-one; the Malabar, fifty-
one;

[ 31 ]

one; the Japanefe have three alphabets,
and forty-eight letters; the Chinefe have
no alphabet, but ufe near eighty thoufand
characters; the Greeks are fuppofed to have
had but fixteen letters at the firft. But the
ingenious Wachter, in his Natura SC Scrip-
tura Concordia, has formed a fcheme to
mew, that ten characters, the number of
our fingers, are fufficient for the exprefling
of all words in all languages; as ten
figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, are fuf-
ficient to all calculations. As this inven-
tion of Mr. Wachter is at leaft a curiofity, I
have here inferted it.

Con-

[ 32 ]

Conspectus Alphabeti Naturalis

Ex Wachteri Natura & Scriptura Concordia, page 64.

Genus.

FlGURA.

POTESTAS.

Vocal

O

a, e, i, 0, u.

Guttur

Q

*

k, c, ch, q, g, h.

Lingual

^

1.

Lingual

^

d, t.

Lingual

* ' ^

r.

Dental

m

s.

Labial

3

b, p.

Labial

71

m.

Labial

H

f, ph, v, w.

Nafal

A

n.

The art of writing was for a long time
entirely unknown in Germany, until the

reign

[ 33 ]

reign of the Emperor Charles the Great,
and made even very little progrefs for a
number of years after his reign. Contract
and deeds were only regiftered in very
extraordinary cafes, and in general confided
to the memory of authentic and refpecftable
perfons ; and in the prefent time," there is
in no country written more than in Ger-
many, which is proved by about one hun-
dred thoufand new publications annually;
which confume a vaft quantity of Paper.

Having fhortly noticed the letters in-
vented and adopted for writing and print-
ing, and conveying ideas, fentiments, and
improvements in arts and fciences from one
to another, I will now give a brief account
of the inftruments and materials which
have been made ufe of, before I proceed
to a hiftory of the materials which have
been engraved, printed, and written on.

The

C 34 ]

The inftruments were of two kinds ; they
performed their fervices either immediately
or by the afliftance of fluids. To- the
firft belong the wedge, (cuneus); the
chiflel, (celtes, celten, coellum, caelum);
and the writing fefcue, (Jilus, graphiicm).
And to the fecond, the writing reed,
(calamus fcriptoriusy or calamus chartarius);
the pencil ; and the quills or pens.

The Wedge and the chiffel are the
mod ancient writing inflruments ; the
firft inhabitants of the globe formed there-
with in wood, ftone, and on metal and
wax, their images, or representations,
hieroglyphicks, and at laft their alpha-
betical letters, which have been mentioned
in the Bible in feveral places ; (Job,
ch. xix. v. 23, 24. Jeremiah, ch. xvii. v. 1.)
On thofe followed the WFiting-fefcue,
which was ufually made from iron, and
fometimes from ivory, copper, filver, &c.
Genteel perfons ufed in general fefcues

of

[ 35 ]

of filver, of which one has been found of
Childerich. Thofe of ivory or bone were
ufed to write on wood and wax; and
thofe made of iron for writing on leaden
and copper plates.

Thefe fefcues were of different fhapes;
fometimes large and ftrong, and fmall and
thin, for other purpofes ; fome were of the
fhape of pins or needles ; but one end
was ufually blunt and broad, to efface the
mifwritten letters and words, which were
named by the Romans, Jiilum vertere.
Some fefcues were fo large, that they
could be ufed for the fame purpofes as
ftilettos ; and feveral authors have noticed,
that in many inftances they have been
employed for committing murder. But it
is doubtful, if this be the reafon, why
the ufe thereof has been entirely prohi-
bited for fome time in Rome. It would
be a ftrange interdiction; and as Angular
as a prohibition of cords and Hnives, be-

caufe

[ 36 ]

caufe they have been fometimes employed
for committing murder and fuicide.

But fuch fefcues were too fharp for
writing on parchment and Egyptian paper,
for which reafon reeds were employed for
thofe purpofes. Pliny fays, that the an-
cients gave the preference to Egyptian
reed, (cognatione quadam papyri.') Yet many
other reeds have been ufed; and Martinus
Crufius Hates, that the writing reeds from
Perfia were generally ufed. When fuch
reeds became blunt by ufe, they were
either iharpened with a knife, or on a
rough Itone, and fuch re-pointed reed was
named by Cicero calamum temperatum.

The reeds were fplit on the points, like
our pens, to lay the colour or ink neater
on the paper or parchment, for which
reafon Aufonius names them dijtpedes.
According to Chardin, the ufe of reeds is
ftill continued in feveral Oriental cour^

tries,

[ 37 ]

tries, and not fuperceded by the introduc-
tion of quills. Goguet and others main-
tain that pencils have been ufed for writing
prior to the introduction of reeds, but
nothing can be pofitively afcertained, ex-
cept that reeds have been always more
abundantly in ufe than pencils. The
Chinefe continue ftill to ufe hair-pencils
for painting their letters. Their ink-ftand
is a polifhed piece of marble, with a hole
in one corner containing water, in which
they dip a piece of ink, and rub it on
the marble more or lefs, according as they
wifh to make the ftrokes more black or
brighter. They hold the pencil perpendi-
cular, and write from the right to the left,
from the top to the bottom. The marble,
paper, pencil, and ink, which are all their
writing inftruments and materials, are
jointly named pau-tfe,

Rau wolff tells us in his Travels, p. 87,
(Aug(burg, 1573,) that in the Turkitfi

dominions,

t 38 ]

dominions, in the mops, canes (for pens)
are to be fold, which are fmall and hol-
low within, fmooth without, and of a
brownifh red colour, wherewith the Turks
and Moors write : for to write with goofe-
quills is not in ufe with them. Taver-
nier alfo, in one of his voyages, p. 229,
tells us, that the Perlians ufe three forts of
hands: fet-hand, court-hand, and running-
hand; and that they write with fmall In-
dian reeds, bearing their hands exceeding
lightly. Their ink, he fays, is made of
galls and charcoal, pounded together with
foot; but their paper is coarfe and brown,
being made of cotton fuftian. Sir John
Chardin, in his Travels, vol. ii. p. 108, &c.
likewife obferves, that the Perfians, who
write from the right hand to the left, hold
their paper in their hands, and do not
lean upon tables or defks, as we do, and
perform their work with dexterity. Worm,
in his Mufeum, p. 164 and 383, tells us,
that the inhabitants of Malacca write from

the

t 39 ]

the left hand to- the right, as we do, upon
the leaves of palm trees, fome of which
are two cubits long, two inches broad,
and as thick as parchment; they make
their letters, by pricking the leaf with an
iron ilyle, which they hold in their right
hand, while the leaf is held in the left.
The Turks in like manner, who employ a
great number of clerks, as they permit
no printing amongft them, according to
the aforefaid RauwolrT's teflimony, oftener
write upon their knees than upon defks
or tables.

The introduction of quills, of which we
make at prefent our writing pens, accord-
ing to Ifidorus, Montfaucon, and Schwarz,
is only one thoufand two or three hundred
years fince ; and thofe who fay that it has
been noticed by Juvenal are as erroneous
as Chrift, who, in his treatife on Li-
terature and Antiquities, ftates, p. 321,
that pens made of quills are only two or
d three

t 4° ]
three hundred years in ufe. In the im-
perial library at Vienna is a picture, ex-
hibited as a great curiofity, of Ariftotle's
writing with a quill ; and in Rome is the
ftatue from which this picture is copied,
with a manufcript written in 1471. If
that had been written in Ariftotle's time,
the ftatue would have been molt likely
carved with a reed inftead of a quill.
Iftdorus Hifpalenfis, who lived about the
middle of the feventh century, is the
Jirft who ufed the word penna for a
writing pen.

Let me here obferve, that wherever the
word pen occurs in our Englifh tranfla-
tion of the Old and New Teftament, we
muft not underftand it of a pen made
of a quill, but of an iron ftyle, or a
reed ; for though our name pen be derived
' from the Latin penna, yet this latter is
never ufed for a pen to write with, in
the Roman claffics. Bayle, in his dic-
tionary,

[ *» ] ■

tionaiy, relates a remarkable particular of
Leo Allatius, that he having made ufe of
one and the fame pen for forty years, in
writing Greek, and lofing it at lad, was
ready to cry for grief; but he does not
inform us what that pen was made of,
nor whether he did not make ufe of
fome others between whiles. To give an
inftance nearer home of a fimilar cafe,
Philemon Holland, a phyiicianof Coventry,
tranflated Pliny's Natural Hiftory into En-
glim with one pen, as he fays himfelf in
thefe lines:

With one fole pen, I wrote this book,

Made of a grey-goofe quill ;
A pen it was when I it took,

A pen I leave it ftill.

The author of the Hiftory of Manual Arts,
8vo. p. 61, fays, that a lady, whofe name
he mentions not, preferred this identical
pen in a lilver cafe; fo that it pofllbly
may remain in fome mufeum of curioll-
ties to this day.

D 2 In

C 42 1

In all Stationery Shops in this country
are now exhibited for fale various pens
made of -gold and filver, fome of which
are very ufeful, containing ink in fuch a
manner, that a perfon, by fliaking it, is
at all times able to write on promenades
and travelling, or in libraries, picture
galleries, naturalifts cabinets, &c» which
is much preferable to the writing with
black-lead pencils, which rubs out and
is obliterated. The mechanic Scheller
in Leipfic makes a fuperior kind. Ne-
Verthelefs, pens made of goofe-quills re-
main in common ufe, the confumption of
which is now very great in all countries,
and are imported in many countries to a
considerable amount. Is it, therefore, not
furprizing that no greater attention is
paid to breed geefe more abundantly, as
they provide not only pens to write with,
but alfo feathers for our beds to repofe
easily, and wholefome food for our fup-
^port t

In

[ 43 ]

In the library of the Duke of Brunf-
wick at "Woifenbuttle is an old Greek
manufcript of the four Evangelifts, in
which the pictures of St. Matthew and
St. Mark are painted with beautiful co-
lours on a gilt ground. All the ancient
writing utenfils are here more diftinct
than in any other work. The ink-ftand
is therein of a black colour, and clofe to
it a veflel which feems to contain a ted
liquid.

The fand-box or glafs was likewife a
writing utenfil of the ancients. But they
joined alfo another reflel or glafs, filled
with a liquid, to attenuate the ink.

The fefcue and reed" had always a fepa-
rate confervatory, to prevent their being
damaged, which was named by the Latins
theca calamaria, and graphiarium. A
puncher was ufually joined, which ferved
to point out the commencement and
i> 3 end

[ 44 ]

end of each line, and fometimes the large
letters.

The rule, regula, nonna, canon, was
ufually a feparate utenfil, but fometimes
joined in the confervatbry. It was ufed to
draw lines, and to divide the meets of
parchment into columns. The lines were
drawn with an instrument, fimilar to a
demi-circle, with a handle, and leaden
or iron points. The fame inftrument, if
of iron, ferved likewife for cutting the
parchment or paper. If it was too iharp,
it often cut the parchment. This inftru-
ment was named fubula. Blank lines,
drawn either with the fefcue or with
the fubula, are difcovered in all neatly
written ancient manufcripts, and in many
records from the fixth to the fourteenth
century. The pierced points difcovered
on both ends of the lines were made
with the before mentioned puncher.

Pumice

I « 1

Pumice (pumex) was likewife a writing
material of the ancients, and \jfed to
fmooth the rough and uneven parts of the
parchment, or to fharpen the reed. Pu-
mice has been likewife ufed in modern
times to erafe ancient writings, to the
deftruction of valuable manufcripts, which
parchments were again fmooth ened, and
often fcribbled over inconfequent fluff, or
of lefs note than it contained formerly,
which is the origin of codices refcriptu
But if the ink had funk too much in the
parchment, remnants of the old letters
remained, as is to be feen in the library at
Wolfenbuttle, where is preferved an old
piece of parchment, from which the Epifile
to the Romans was erafed, and the copyift
had written the Origines of the Bifliop
Indorus.

A fponge ferved to rub out fuch letters

as were written by miftake or inattention

on the parchment, and to. wipe, off or to

d 4 cleanfe

[ 46 ]

cleanfe the writing reed. Parchment or
paper was cut either with paper-fcifTars,
or the before mentioned fubula ; and all
lines were feparated at an equal diftance
with a compafs.

The ink that the ancients wrote with,
was of various kinds, in the composition
and colours, as we have it now. Black, as
at prefent, was the moft common ; for that
reafon the Latins called It, melon, atra-
mentum. Diofcorides, Pliny, Vitruvius,
and Ifodorus have acquainted us with, the
different preparations of the ink which
the ahcient§ ufedv which are not at all
(imilar to the prefent. Pliny fays, that
the Romans made their ink of foot, taken
from furnaces and baths. Some alfo wrote
with the black liquid that is found in the
fepia, or cuttle-fifh. Dalechamp, in a
note upon the aforefaid chapter of Pliny,
obferves, that the northern nations, (with-
out explaining which he means by that

term)

[ 47 ]

term) write very well with the faid li-
quid, by adding a little alum to it. Jacob
Quandt defcribes the ink of the ancient
Hebrews, and in the Canaparius * published
at Venice in 1619, are publifhed a great
number of receipts for making the ink
of the ancients.

Perfius, the poet, in the following verfes,
tranflated by Mr. Dryden, humoroufly
defcribes a lazy young fhident, laying the
blame of his own idlenefs upon his writ-
ing materials ; where he metaphorically
puts sepia for ink, and ufes three different
words, in the compafs of four lines, viz.
calamus, arundo, and fiftula, for a pen.

With much ado, his book before him laid,
And parchment with the finoother fide difplay'd ;
He takes the papers, lays 'em down again,
And with unwilling fingers tries his pen;

Some

* This book is written in bad Latin, and defcribej
numerous chemical experiments, and was therefore
re-publiflied at London in 1660; and at Rotterdam in
'1718.

[ 48 ]

Some peevifh quarrel ftraight he flrives to pick,
His quill writes double, or his ink's too thick ;
Infufe more water; now 'tis grown too thin,
It finks, nop can the characters be feen.

The firft ink was made of red wine,
concentrated by boiling, and of mu(k
named fapa ; fince of mulberry juice ;
but principally of foot, tempered with
fome glue or gum, and fometimes, for
the prefervation of paper and parchment,
with an extract from wormwood. The
Chinefe make ink from lamp-black, ob-
tained by burning different materials, prin*
cipally of fir wood and oil, of which they
make a pafle and dry it. All ink made of
foot, changed in the courfe of time, its
black colour into yellow, as appears by
many ancient manufcripts. But we muft
not form a decided opinion on the colour
of ink with which manufcripts have been
written ; becaufe we find, in almoft all
manufcripts of the firft fourteen centuries,
letters of different colours, from the paleft

to

[ *9 3

to the darkeft ; and Wanfley juftly obferves,
that amongft ancient manuscripts, of one
thoufand years and upwards old, are found
fome written with ink yet darker black
than any which we now are able to make.
We cannot, therefore, reject the antiquity
of a diploma, becaufe it refembles our
modern ink.

Our anceftors ufed not only black ink,
but alfo red ink of different inades and
qualities, which was made of ruddle,
rubrica; red lead, minium; the juice of
kermes, coccus ; or of vermilion, cinnabaris;
and fometimes purple ink, which was
made, with a particular treatment, from
boiled purple fnails, and their pulverized
{hells.

Purple ink was very expenfive, and
therefore not much ufed*. The writing

therewith

* The knowledge of tfye ingredients ufed by the
ancients, in making purple was loft, with the con que ft

of

[ 50 ]

therewith became in later times a pre-
rogative of the Emperors, that colour
being a token of dignity, grandeur, and
fublimity. The oriental Emperors figned
their edicts and mandates with purple ink,
for which reafon it was named facrum
encaujlum ; and as late as the twelfth cen-
tury, they divided that honour with their
next relations. The Emperor Leo inter-
dicted the ufe of the facrum encaufiurn to
all private perfons and noblemen; and
the regents who governed the flate, during
the minority of an Emperor, ufed not
purple, but green ink for their fignature.
Montfaucon notices fome Imperial figna-
tures with facro encaujio, which is greatly

different

of Conftantinople, becaufe the purple-manufaftures
were, fince the reign of Theodofius, the great pri-
vate property of the Emperors, and therefore there
remained only one at Tyre, and another at Con-
ftantinople. ^ The former place was deftroyed by the .
Saracens and the other by the' Turks; and thus this
art, with which only a few perfons were acquainted,
has been loft, and not yet again difcovered.

[ 51 ]

different from the encauftum ufed by the
Greeks and Romans for painting.

Jofephus fays, the Jews had their thora
with golden letters; and Hieronymus men-
tions that in his time has been written
with gold ; which yet is copioufly done
in Egypt, according to Maillet's descrip-
tion of Egypt, vol. 2. p. 192. It is well
known, that the Perfians, when they write
to their fuperiors, to whom they wifli
to fhew in their letters high veneration,
write on white paper with gold flowers;
and they paint the name and title with
gold letters.

The gold ink has been prepared differ-
ent ways ; the cuftomary method' has
been, to mix pure gold and filver in a
crucible over the fire, adding porphyrian
marble and fulphur, after it has been
converted into fine powder, and digefled
over a flow fire in an earthen well-covered

veiTel.

I 52 ]

vefTel. The whole was then put into the
fame well-covered earthen veflel, and
kept on a flow fire until it was red.
When cold, it was pounded in a marble
mortar, with plenty of water; when fettled,
that water was poured off, and other
water ufed until it was found thoroughly
clean. If wanted for ufe, a part thereof
was taken the day before, and fome gum
and water added, and, when ufed, made
milk-warm.

Conftantine the Great ordered fair-
hand-writers to make fifty copies of the
Bible on parchment, under the direction
of the Bifhops Caefarea and Eufebius, which
have been fince copied at different times
with gold letters by command of his fuc-
ceflbrs.

At Hervorden is preferved a manu-
fcript written with gold letters, found in

the grave of Wittekind.

In

I 53 1

In the cathedral of Aix la Chapelle is
a part of the New Teftament written
with golden letters. It was put into the
grave of Charles the Great at the time
of his burial, but the Emperor Otto the
Third ordered it to be taken out in the
year 1000, which was 186 years after
the death of Charles. This book is re-
markable becaufe the Emperors of the
Roman empire were bound at their co-
ronation to make their oath by laying
their ringers on the firfl page of St.
John the evangelift. It is in a large
quarto frze, and was elegantly bound 400
years after the death of Charles the Great,
and is, with the cover, about three inches
thick. The leaves are all of a violet-
colour, and the gold colour of the letters
is tolerably well preferved. The book
contains the writings of the four evan-
gelifts ; but all that which belongs not
to the text, is written with filver letters,
and not fo well preferved. The whole

is

[ 54 ]

is very neat, but not divided into chap-
ters and verfes ; it is in una ferie, with-
out any flops, points, or other marks of
diftinclion ; without capital letters or or-
naments : the letters are however all of
one fize, and the words without abbrevi-
ations. It feems to be written either
at the latter end of the eighth, or the
commencement of the ninth century.
The feveral accounts given of this book
arc contradictory. ' Koehler erroneoufly
aflerts that it is written on bark-paper,
but it is certain, and I am eye-witnefs
by examination, that the leaves are thin
parchment. If this book has not been
taken away before Aix la Chapelle was
Frenchified, I am at a lofs to know in what
manner any future Emperor can be con-
stitutionally crowned, becaufe, according
to the conftitution of Germany, feveral
infignia are required at the coronation of
an Emperor, which are gathered together
from feveral places, and brought folemnly

to

t 55 ]

to Francfort on the Main for the ufe of
the coronation.

Another book of the Evangelifts with
golden letters is in the convent of St.
Emeran, at Regenfburgh : it is on one
fide with gilt plate, ornamented with dia-
monds; and given by the Emperor Ar-
nolphus to the holy Emeran, before he
died. It is publicly exhibited in the
church of the convent on all holy days.

In the Imperial library at Vienna, and
in the library of the convent of St. Gallen,
are the Pfalms of David, written with
golden letters. In the lail century, there
was, in the library of the Monkhoufe fa-
mily, near Schaumbourg, the whole Bible
written in golden letters, given to that
family by Sophia the Firft, Abbefs of
Ganderfheim, daughter of Otto the Second.
And in the year 1788, Ettingen, a book-
feller of reputation at Gotha, offered for fale
e a very

I *« ]

a very -neat manufcript, containing fome
chapters of the Alcoran, written with gold
letters, in- the Arabic language.

The following records are further pre-
ferved. The diploma of Otto the Second,
in the archive of the minifter at Gander-
lheim. A record of the Emperor Henry
the Second, in the bifhopric of Paderborn
in Weftphalia. Another of Conrad the
Third ; and one of the Emperor Frederick
the Firft; both in the abbey of Corvey.
And in the three confirmation bulls, of
the privileges of the church of Rome,
given by the Emperors Otto the Firft and
the Second, and Henry the Saint ; and
further, in the marriage compact of the
Emperor Otto the Second with Theophania ;
and in the chart of Lotharius the Second,
which he delivered to the Abbot Wiblo
at Stavelot, the gold has not been fpared.

In the vaults of a deftroyed temple at

Semipalat,

[ 57 ]

Semipalat*, in Siberia, have been found
feveral rolls of blue and black coloured
paper, entirely written on, with gold let-
ters. They were delivered to the Czar
Peter the Great, who could not difcover
in his empire one fingle perfon who was
able either to read or to tranflate thefe
neatly written and well-preferved. manu-
fcripts. One of thefe rolls' was therefore
fent to Paris by Schumacher, librarian of
the academy at Mofcow, to the Abbot
Bignon, who was in great repute, and
was librarian to the King of France, foli-
citing him to find out a learned perfon,
who was able to flate in what language
the roll had been written, and to develope
the contents. The Abbot Bignon fhewed
it to Fourmont, interpreter to the king,
who was faid to be mafter of the Chinefe

and

* Semipalat, which is fituated on the river Upper
Irtifch, ftill retains its name, and that from feven palates,
or apartments, which are there among the ruins.

E 2

[ 58 1

and other oriental languages. This hold v
grammarian, who had never before feen
ftmilar letters, and relying in full confi-
dence on the fame of his great knowledge
of the oriental languages, led by vanity,
had the impudence to hold out, that he
was the only perfon capable of tranflating
the writing. He aflerted, it was written
in the ancient Tangutian language, and
delivered a fictitious tranflation, compofed
by his own fancy. Peter the Great, who
doubted the correclnefs of the tranflation,
neverthelefs made him a very confiderable
prefent, and thereby encreafed his fame.
But in the reign of the Emprefs Ann,
many years after the death of Peter the
Great, two Ruffians appeared at the aca-
demy of St. Peterfburgh, who, during a
refidence of fixteen years in Pekin, had
learned the Chinefe and Mantfchurian lan-
guages. They recognized immediately,
that the writings of all the rolls were in
the Mantchiirian language; they read

them

I 59 ]

them without hefitation and difficulty;
they tranflated feveral, and amongft others
the roll, formerly tranflated by the French-
man Fourmont. But not a Jingle word
agreed with i his tranflation ; and it was
fully afcertained, that Fourmont had been
an impoftor, who did not know a fingie
letter of the roll. The original rolls are
Hill preferved in the academy of fciences
at St. Peterfburgh, with both tranftations ;
and are, according to Jacob von Staehlein,
permitted to- be feen by every one who
enquires for them.

Similar rolls of fmoothed blue paper,
written in part with golden, and in part
with golden and filver letters, with the
holy characters of the Tibetans, were in
Sloane's library, and marked with the
numbers 2836 and 2837. They were
found beyond Siberia, in the fouth-eaftern
part of Tartary.

e 3 Manu-

[ 60 J

Manufcripts written with filver letters
2re more fcarce. A few »are yet exifting.
One of Gregorius Nazianzenus was in the
King's library at Paris, wherein all quo-
tations from" the holy Scriptures were
written with golden letters, and all other
parts in filver. The Pfalter of David
is in the library at Zurich, written with
filver letters on purple-coloured parch-
ment in the feventh century: the title
is written with golden letters. The ma-
nufcript of the Gothic tranflation "of the
four books of the evangelifts, by the Bifhop
Ulphilas, who lived in the year 350, is
preferved at the univerfity of Upfal. All
the letters are filver, except the capitals,
which are gold. According to Mabillon
and Gatterer, diplomas written with filver

letters are not in exigence.

*

It is of confequence to mankind in
general that writings may be preferved ;
which depends on the ftrength of paper

and

[ « ]

and parchment, and on fuch a durable
black ink, as will not fade by age, nor
obliterate in water. Aftle, in his Origin
and Progrefs of Writing, fays, " It is an
" object of the utmoft importance that
" the records of parliament, the decifions
" and adjudications of the courts of juf-
■" tice, conveyances from man to man,
" wills, teffaments, and other inftruments,
" which affect property, mould be written
" with ink of fuch durable quality, as
" may bed refift the deftructive power
*' of time and elements. The neceffity
" of paying greater attention to this matter
" may be readily feen, by comparing the
" rolls and records, which have been writ-
" ten from the fifteenth century to- the
" end of the feventeenth, with the writings
" we have remaining of various ages from
" the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Not-
" withftanding the fuperior antiquity of
u the latter, they are in excellent pre-
** fervation; but we frequently find the
e 4 " former,

[ 62 ]

" former, though of modern date, fo
" much defaced, that they are fcarcely
" legible."

Several experienced chymifts have en-
deavoured to difcover a durable black ink,
and to prepare paper for lading writings;
which inducer me to acquaint the pub-
lick with their proceffes. Lambert recom-
mends " to pound the gall-nuts in an
" iron mortar to very fine powder, and
" to pour three or four times its quan-
" tity of water on it ; to let it remain
" eight or ten days in the fun, or to
<* boil it for half an hour or longer, ac-
c< cording to the quantity. To diflblve
u iron-vitriol, to be {trained and. added
" to the diflblution of galls, till the ink
" attains the defired black colour. Too
" fmall a quantity of vitriol produces a
" brown reddifh colour ; if more be added,
" a violet ; then a black hue, and at laft
" a dark black. If the colour of the

" ink

[ ^ ]
" ink be not fufficiently dark, he re-
" commends to thicken it by boiling, and
" then to add gum in fuch a quantity
" that the ink may be neither too fluid
" nor too tough." The ink is always of a
fuperior quality, if made fufficiently aqueous
when prepared, becaufe by adding water
a portion of the fine black particles will
precipitate. Lambert defines not the
quantity of the ingredients, and they are
not always of the fame quality. Lewis
propofes to take three ounces of galls
to one ounce of iron-vitriol; but Lambert
recommends to take lefs vitriol, to prevent
the paper from turning yellow. Experi-
ence proves daily, that with one and the
fame ink written on different paper, dif-
ferent fhades of black are produced ; and
this muft originate in the lime and glue
ufed in the. paper-mill, or if the paper
or rag has been bleached by a chymical
procefs. An ink which as far as it pof-»
fibly can be done retains its dark colour

on

f ** 3

on every kind of paper, is the moft pre-
ferable.

Auguftus Lewis Pfannenfmith in Ha-
nover has invented a black ink, which,
by trial, is found to be fuperior to all
others: it is different from all other inks
hitherto known, becaufe,

1. It is entirely made from fuch pro-
ductions of the country, as can be pro-
cured abundantly and cheap, without
ufing galls and gum.

2. The writing done with this ink
cannot be deftroyed, by oil of vitriol,
fpirit of fait, fpirit of nitre, fait of lemon,
fait of forrel; nor by any alkalies, which
can only alter its colour in a fmall de-
gree, eithet yellowifh or reddilh. i

3. The writings with this ink alter not
by time, or if expofed to the air and heat
of the fun.

4- It

[ 65 ]

4- It can be prepared like the Cbinefe
ink in dry cakes, and is therefore conve-
nient for exportation and travellers.

T

It's preparation is as follows: " One
" peck of foot, and one and a half peck
" of wood-afhes, is to be boiled with four
" or five pails of foft water, whereby the
" alkaline falts extracted from the afhes
" diflblve all thofe parts of the foot
" which are capable of dilTolution. This
" is poured altogether into an empty
" hogfhead, and filled up with water ; it
" muft remain there for twenty-four
" hours, cpnftantly flirring the clear li*
" quid, which is of a brown colour ; it is
" then drawn into another cafk of the
'* fame fize. About thirty or forty pounds
" of oak bark, with four or five pounds
" of Brazil wood fhavings*, are to be
'* boiled during three or four hours with
'' as much water as is fufficient to cover

" the
*,This wood is not absolutely neeeffary.

" the ingredients. The extract is to be
" filtered through a cloth, and put into
U another TefleL Six pounds of iron of
" vitriol is to be diflblved in fix pounds of
" foft water. To this d involution is to be
" added a pail full of cold water, and put
" into the cafk which contains the brown
" liquid. The alkaline falts extracted
" from the afhes which were neceflary
" to diflblve the foot, and from the ex- »
" tracked vitriolic acids, mix with the
«' water ; and the diflblved parts of the
" foot, the iron and earthy parts of the
" vitriol, with the colour and gum ex-
" tracked from the oak bark and Brazil
" wood {havings, form a mixed precipitate.
*c It is therefore required to feparate the
" alkaline lie from the acid, which is
" accomplifhed by adding as much clean
" water as is required to fill the hogfhead.
" It muft be well ftirred, and left three
" or four days to fettle, in which time
" the united precipitate is fettled at the

" bottom.

[ 67 ]

ce bottom. The clean water on the top
*' mull then be drawn off, and thrown
" away. The cafk is then to be filled
" again with frefh water, fo far as to
«6 receive one pail full of water more. In
<c the pail with water required to fill the
" cafk, twelve ounces of iron-vitriol is to
*' be dhTolved, which is ftirred and
" poured into the hogfhead. The laft
" procefs is neceflary to facilitate the
u fecond precipitation, which is otherwife
" more difficult than at the firfl time.
" Within two days it is again fettled;
" the water is then to be drawn off from
" the top. A wooden frame muft be pre-
<c pared, on which is flackly to be fattened
" a piece of half-bleached fine linen cloth ;
" the frame muft then be placed on fup-
" porters as horizontally as poflibly can
" be .done, and a pail full of the preci-
" pitated colour is then flowly to be poured
" upon the ftraining cloth. Some coloured
" liquid will at firfl run through, which

" muft

[ 68 ]

muft be faved, but the clear water which
comes afterwards is to be fuffered to run
away ; then continue to add more of the
precipitate, as much as the {trainer will
hold, and only clear water will drain off.
AVithin two or three days the colour
appears on the cloth, refembling pap,
which is to be taken off, and well ftirred
with a few pails full of clean water in
a wooden tub, and again poured into
the hogfhead, which is again to be filled
with clean water, and twelve ounces of
iron-vitriol added in the fame manner
as heretofore defcribed. The whole is
then ftirred, time is given to precipitate,
and the colour ftrained on the frame.
The reafon, why (throughout the whole
of this procefs) it is prefcribed to ufe re-
peatedly fuch a large quantity of water,
is to clean the diflblved foot as much as
poffible, and to obtain the united preci-
pitate from the extrad of the oak-bark
and tjie iron-vitriol in the fineft ftate,

«£ which

[69 ]

* which principally contributes to the
" durability . of this ink, and imprefies
"■deeper into the interftices of the
" paper. The repeated adding and draw-
" ing off of the water is neceflary to
" carry off the vitriolic acid as much as
" poffibly can be done. Now, for the
" laft time, take the ink -pap from the
" frame and add an alkaline-lie, prepared of
" two pounds or two pounds and an half of
" American pot afh, dilTolved in the fame
" weight of water, and fix ounces of com-
" mon fait diflblved in water, which, is to
"be heated altogether in a boiler, con-
rt ftantly ftirring it. If to this is added
a fix quarts of malt-vinegar, well ftirred,
" a very durable and good ink is obtained.
" The flimy parts of the vinegar are of
" ufe in this preparation. Should it happen
" that the ink prepared in this manner
" should turn out of a yellowifh shade,
" the foot has been of too rich a colour,
"• and there should have been taken lefs

in

[ 70 ]

" in proportion to the colour extracted
" from the oak-bark. The laft directed
" ufe of pot am, which in the firft part
" of the procefs has been prefcribed to
" detach, ferves now to diffolve again all
" the parts of the foot yet remaining in
" the mixed precipitate, and thereby to
" give the ink a greater power to imprefs
<e into the paper; and to promote the
" durability of the colour, ferving at the
" fame time as gum. To form this ink
" into cakes, a number of flat ftones
" mould be placed in fuch a manner,
" that they may be eafily heated. Some
" of the ink is to be poured thereupon;
** and when evaporated more is to be
" added, conftantly ftirring until formed
" like a pafte, which is to be taken from
<e the ftone plates, and laid on a warm
4< place, till fufficiently dried. If wanted
" for ufe the cakes are to be pulverized,
*c and converted into good ink, by the addi-
" tion of fome boiling water."

To

[ 7V 1

To prepare paper for lading writings
is a valuable addition in the art of mak-
ing paper ; and the new manufactory,
now building at Millbank, for manufac-
turing paper from draw and other vege-
tables, will be mortly in a date to provide
the publick fufficiently with paper exprefsly
manufactured for that purpofe.

As perhaps the patience of the reader
may be tired with the long but neceflary
procefs of making an everlafting black ink,
I join for his recreation receipts for mak-
ing the bed and mod lading coloured inks.

For Red Ink i — Take four ounces per-
nambuco wood fhavings of the bed quality,
boil it with half an ounce of alum in a
quart of rain water, during one hour;
when drained, add a little gum Arabic.

In the fame manner different coloured

inks can be made from all known dyeing

f woods.

[ 72 ]
woods. Yellow-wood will produce yellow
ink; Brazil-wood, violet ink, &c. But
all inks made from dyeing wood will be
more beautiful and lading, if a fmall
diflblution of tin is added to it, which
is to be prepared as follows: diflblve in
four ounces of the ftrongeft oil of vitriol,
lialf an ounce of fal armoniac, and as
much tin as will diflblve; or mix fpiritus
falis with fpiritus nitri, and diflblve in it
as much tin fhavings as will diflblve, if
it even fhould take up two or three
days, which folution, if kept in a glafs
phial, will lad many years. All inks made
from boiled dyeing wood may be mixed,
and thereby obtain numerous fhades of
different beautiful colours:, but care muft
be taken never to ufe in thefe inks a
pen dipped in black ink, becaufe the par-
ticles of iron, which are a property of
black ink, will fpoil all other coloured
inks.

For

[ 73 1

For Green Ink: — Pound three ounces
of verdigreafe and two ounces of white
tartar in fixteen ounces of water for twelve
or fifteen minutes ; when {trained add two
ounces of gum Arabic,*

For Blue Ink of the greateft beauty
and durabilityv: — Pound two ounces of the
bed Pruifian blue (Berlin blue), and pour
on it two ounces of fpirit of fait, mixed
with two ounces of water : keep, it milk-
warm, and ftir it till the blue is diffolved,
which will take place in three or four
hours. The veflel mufl not be too fmall,
becaufe the mixture will at firft ferment
and rife. It is afterwards attenuated with
more or lefs water, according to the made
of blue you wifh to have. No gum
Arabic is to be added.

The diplomatics name, befides metals,

five other materials, ufed for the impref-

fion of feals, and for fealing letters and

F 2 other

t 74 ]

other things, to wit, terra Jigillata, putty,
pafte, wax, and fealiug-wax.

Notwithstanding Pliny denies that feals
have been ufed by the ancient Egyptians,
it is neverthelefs proved that they were
well acquainted with the ufe of the
terra Jigillata, which was, according to
Herodotus, the firft fluff employed for
that purpofe. He fays, that the Egyptian
priefls bound on the horns of the animals
{elected for immolation, a piece of paper,
on which they imprefled their feals on
terra Jigillata, and thofe animals marked
in that manner could only be taken for
facrifices. Mofes mentions likewife the
feal-ring of Pharaoh. Lucian fays that
all perfons who went to fortune-tellers,
were obliged to write , the queries on a
ticket, which mud be folded up and fealed
with wax or terra figillata. Cicero, Ser-
vius, and others fay that the fame has
been ufed by the ancients; and it feems

that

, [ 75 ]

that the fame earth has been ufed for
fealing by the Byzantine Emperors, be-
caufe fome perfon attempted to defend
the worfhipping of images, by ftating, that
no perfon who received a command from
the Emperor, and khTed the feal, did it
to mew veneration to the parchment, the
lead, or the terra Jigillata, but to mew his
refpecV to the Emperor.

The earth which is now by us named
chalk, cannot have been the creta of the
ancients, which they ufed for fealing, it
muft have been of the clay kind, which
only takes impreflions, and retains the
fame when hardened by drying. That
the Latins have often exprefled a kind
of clay by the name of creta has been
proved by Columella, Virgil, Varro and
others.

Wax has been ufed for fealing in the

moft ancient times in Europe ; but whether

f 3 white

[ 16 ]

white or yellow was firft ufed is a
point on which the diplomatics differ.
Gatterer fays that the wax which was firft
ufed for fealing was white, but Beck-
man declares that the yellow was the firft
and generally ufed, at leaft by private per-
fons, being the cheapeft; and I cannot
help deciding in his favour, becaufe the
progrefs of arts was very flow in ancient
times, which induces me to believe that
many years pafTed before the art of bleach-
ing wax * was difcovered. After it was
found out that the yellow colour of wax
could be converted into white, it was
foon cploured red ; but green ^.nd yellow
wax was not known in Germany before
the fourteenth century.

That the Conftantinopolitan patriarchs,
the high-mafter of. the Teutonic-order,
the grand-maiter of the knights of Malta,
and fome of the firft nobility, ufed the
black colour for their feals, is, according

to

[ 77 ]

to Gattcrer, Thulemarius, Heineccius, and
Hanfelman well known ; but, that the
matters of the Templars ufed the fame
colour for fealing, we are informed of
folely by Dr. Chriftopher Smith, otherwife
Phifeldek, who ftates, that there is pre-
served in the archives of the Duke of
Brunfwic at Wolfenbuttle, a document,
written , by M after Widekind on parch-
ment, on which hangs a black feal on
blue and white linen thread.

Blue fealing wax was unknown in former
times, notwithstanding it is ftated by
Struvius, that the Emperor Frederick the
Third granted Hans Schenk, Lord at
Tuutenberg; and by Heineccius, that the
Emperor Charles the Fifth granted in 1524?
Dr. Stockhammer in Nuremberg, the pri-
vilege to ufe blue Wax for their feals.
We may fay, that the art of dyeing wax
* blue, is ftill a fecret. No receipt for
making it is to be found in any ancient
f 4 work;

[78 ]

work ; and the receipts given by modern
authors, by Le Pileur d'Apligny and
others, produce no blue, but a dirty
colour, which is neither green nor blue.
The coloured juices, when united with
wax, make it more greenim than blue;
and if mineral-earths are ufed, they will
not unite with wax, and fettle at the
bottom. If therefore a feal of blue wax
could be produced, of which the external
part has not been coloured, fuch a curi-
ofity would puzzle the technologies and
diplomatics, and be a problem for our
chymifts. The privileges which have been
given to Schenk and Stock hammer are
therefore fimilar to other privileges which
have been granted in the year 1704- to
the county of Reinftein and the princi-
pality of Halberftadt, not only to work in
their mines minerals, . but likewife indigo.
By thefe privileges the Lord and Doctor
could find as much blue wax, as the
others could melt indigo from oar found

in

[ ™ ]

in their mines. Neverthelefs, Beckman
does not give up the hope, that the art
of dying wax blue will yet be difcovered,
although all trials have hitherto been un-
fuccefsful.

The ufe of wafers is more modern
than the ufe of feals ; and no ancient
diploma is to be found fealed with wafers.
The moft ancient is not two hundred years
old. Spiefz could not difcover any one
older than of the year 1624 ; but Martin
Schwartner found, in the univerfity library
at Peft, three fomewhat older; one is a
pafTport, given by Father Vifitator to three
travelling Jefuits, dated BrurTels 1603 ;
the impreflion on the wafers is the ufual
infcription on the Jefuit feals.

Pafte has been ufed for fealing letters
before the difcovery of fealing- wax. Some
learned men tell us of a feal-putty, named
maltha, manufactured from combuftible and

rifing

[ 80 1
riftng compositions. If this afTertion is
founded on truth, it has been the firft
and moft ancient fealing-wax. The fealing-
wax now in ufe is compofed of fimilar
materials, and has fuperfeded all ancient
fealing matters by, its cheapnefs, conve-
nience, and beautiful appearance, not-
withftanding its brittlenefs, and that an
impreflion on it can be eafily forged.

The moft ancient mention of fealing-
wax in books is found in Garcia ab orto
aromatum X Jimplicium aliquot hijloria,
printed in 15 6*3, where by gum-lac the
fticks for fealing letters are noticed. In
Nouveau <Traiti de Diplom. t. iv. p. S3, is
ftated, that Francis Roufleau, a Frenchman,
was the inventor in 164-0. It is faid that
RoufTeau, after many years refidence in
Perfia and India, returned to France, where
he loft all his property by fire, in the latter
part of the reign of Lewis the Thirteenth,
and then eftablifhed a manufactory for

making

I 81 ]

making fealing-wax from gum-lac*, which
he had learned in India. But this French-
man is not intitled to the invention; which
has been already uled between the years
1550 and 1560, as can be proved by let-
ters fealed with black and red fealing-wax
preferved ilnce 1554 in the archives at
Dillenburgh. Spiefz Hates, that there is
one on a diploma of 1563 in Anfpach ;
and Anton has feen in Goerlitz one of
1561 fealed with red fealing-wax; and
another of 1620, with black fealing-wax.

Tavernier

* The infeft which produces the gum-lac is a red
fhield-loufe, coccus lacca, not yet defcribed in any
natural hiftory known to me. It flicks faft to the
branches of the ticus religiofa, indica, rkamnus jujuba,
plafo hort. malab., and foon appears on the edge of the
body a demi-tranfparent glue-like humidity, which
fhortly forms a complete cell. Xhefe cells are the
gum-lac. The white fubftances which are found in
the empty cells are the flriped hides of the young
infefts. It is plentiful on both fhores of the river
Ganges; and one hundred weight has formerly been
fold at Dacca for twelve pounds. The moft preferred
is dark red. The inhabitants of thefe countries make
rings and beads of gum-lac, which they gild and paint,
to ornament the fingers and arms of their wives.

[ 82 ]

Tavernier mentions the preparation of
fealing-wax in the Ealt Indies; and it is
probable that the Portuguefe learned the
art of making fealing-wax in the oriental
countries. Its firft name has been Spaniih
wax, and the French ftill call it cire
d'Efpagne; and it feems that it got the
name of fealing-wax fmce gum-lac has
been ufed in place of common rofin-
Without gum-lac no fealing-wax can ftick
to well-fized and glazed paper*

Copyifts, illuminators, and book-painters,
had full employ before the art of printing
was invented ; but fo much has been
written and printed on this, that it would
be ufelefs to notice it in this work; and
there are fo many nominations of the
ancient writers, that the ftatement of it
alone would fill a book. Whoever wifhes
to be convinced of this, has only to exa-
mine Hermanus Hugo de prima fcribendi
erigine, and the Brunfwic Notices of 1750;

and

t 83 ]

and for modern times, full information is
to be obtained from Matfey's Origin and
Progrefs of Letters. I mall therefore only
Jiotice the names given to the principal
writers.

All copyifts were named by the Romans
librarii, and fometimes fcribis, Bibliopolae
were perfons who kept a number of fer-
vants to write down their own works and
dictations, and copied the works of others.
Calligraphi were fair hand writers. Tachy-
graphiy quick hand writers, and fometimes
lhort hand writers ; they were likewife
named exceptores. Secret writings were
defcribed by kryptographi or Jieganographi.
The Turks call fecret writings felam.
Monks replaced afterwards the librariorurtu
Remarks written on the edges of manu-
fcripts were called glqffemata. Examinantes
were perfons who overlooked the works of
the copyifts, to which they figned their
names. The art of printing here ihews

its

[ 84 ]

its great fuperiority, becaufe all copies are
the fame as the firfV. Illuminatores painted
fome letters and other ornaments of
books.

Of the noble invention of printing*, I
Iikevvife pafs, and continue with making
fome few obfervations on books and book-
binding, and on their being fo much
expofed to be deftroyed by moths and
worms.

The ancients, according to Pliny, ufed
to preferve their parchment, paper, and
books from moths, by warning them over
with cedar or citron oil, which gave them
at the' fame time an agreeable fcent.
Thefe books were named libri cedrati or
c it rati. He believes that the prefervation

of

* It is furprifing that the art of printing books was
not earlier invented, as it is well known that the Ro-
mans were in the habit of flamping the initials of their
names on the bread which they fent to the publick ovens
for baking, which is certainly a kind of printing.

L 35 ]

of the books found in the grave of Numa
was folely attributed to this precaution.
In modern times, many prefervatives for
books againft deftructive infects have been
propofed, but none have yet been effec-
tive. The Royal Society of Sciences at
Gottingen thought it therefore of fuffi-
cient confequence to propofe in their
affembly at the 10th July, 1773, a pre-
mium for July 1774, 'to be given him
who delivered the beft anfwer to the
following queftion: How many kind of
infects are found which are detrimental
to records and books? which of the mate-
rials, as pap, glue, leather, wood, thread,
paper, &c. were attacked by each kind ? and,
which is the beft and raoft approved remedy,
either to preferve records and books ugainft
infects, or to deftroy the infects ?

Among the numerous anfwers received,
Dr. Herman of Strafburgh obtained the
premium, and Flad of Heidelbergh got

the

[ 86 ]

the accejjit. I will give an abridged ex-
tract of their anfwers. Many infects are
charged with injuring books without doing
mifchief, fuch are: acarus, cimex perfonatus,
lepifma faccharina, tinea vejlianella, tinea
pellionella, tinea farcitella, attelabus mollis,
attelabus formicarius, and attelabus apiarius ;
of the following it is not yet fully afcer-
tained if they are guilty or innocent ;
1. termes pulfatorium named alfo the fmall
pumice, the timber fow, the book-loufe, and
the paper- loufe ; 2. phalangium cancroides ;
3. blatta orientalis ; 4-. ptinwfur ; 5. tene-
brio molitor; and 6". phalaena, or tenia gra-
nella. The truly deftructive infects are,
ptinus pertinax, dermejles paniceus, dermejles
lardarius, dermejles pellio, and byrrhus mu-
faeorum. To preferve the records and books
againft infects and to deftroy them, it is
propofed 1. to abolifh the binding books
with any wood; 2. to recommend the
bookbinder to ufe glue mixed with alum
in place of parte ; 3. to brum all worm-
eaten

[ 87 ]
eaten wood in the repofitories of books
with oil or lac-varnim ; 4. to preferve
books bound in calf, he recommends to
brum them over with thin lac-varnim ;
5. no book to lay flat; 6". paper, letters,
documents, &c. may be preferved in draw-
ers without any danger, provided the wafers
are cut out, and that no pafte, &c. is be-
tween them; 7. the bookbinder is not to
ufe any woollen cloth, and to wax the
thread ; 8. to air and duft the books often;
9, to ufe laths, ieparated one from the
other one inch, In place of melves; 10. to
brum over the infides of book-cafes and the
laths with lac-varnim.

The paper in North America is fpeedily
deflroyed by dampnefs and infects, which,
on the fuggeftion of an honorary member,
Mr. Francois at Neufchatel, induced the
Society of Sciences at Philadelphia, in
their Aflembly of the 11th May 1785
to offer a premium for the befl anfwer
g on

[ 88 ' ]

on the queftion : if there was no effectual
remedy to protect paper againft infects?
This fociety offered another premium of
twenty-five moid ores for the beft method
of making paper for St. Domingo, which
would refift infects, and requefted to have
famples to prove its quality. Several an-
fwers and famples were received, but all
recommended to mix the fize, on fizing,
with fharp and bitter, or other ingredients
which might kill the infects, to wit,
vinegar, allum, vitriol, fait, turpentine,
extract of aloes, tobacco, or wormwood ;
camphor, afafcetida caftoreum, and arfenic,
either [to be ufed in the fize, or after-
wards impregnated by infufion. But thefe
remedies were all rejected, and confidered
to be either jnfumcient, or pernicious and
dangerous ; for which reafon, the fociety
renewed their offer, without limiting their
anfwer to a precife time, but without any
fatisfaction, except that Mr. Arthaud,
Royal Phyfician at Cape Francois, named

the

[ 89 ]

the infects which were the moil deftructive
to paper in thefe countries : dermejles feu*
tellatiis, nigra te/iaceus, ovatus, glaber, clytris
thorace punfiis imprejts, oculis nigris punSlatis,
antennis curvatis, apice articulis tribus per-
foliatis compress, which generates in all
feafons during the whole year, and is con-
sidered as the moil dangerous of all paper-
eaters.

To prepare paper for prefervation
againft infects, is likewife an object to
which fome of the proprietors of the new
manufactory now building at Millbank
have paid particular attention ; and they
flatter themfelves they will likewife be
able to bring to fale, and to lay before
the examination of fcientific men, and
the publick at large, paper, in this view
much fuperior to any other heretofore
manufactured.

Paper is likewife ufed for filtring; and
g 2 that

[ 90 ]

that now employed for that purpofe is the
common blotting paper, which is very
tender, the publick are therefore herewith
informed that this inconvenience is like-
wife remedied, and at the Neckinger-mill
is now manufacturing a paper, fuperior to
any other, in ftrength and durability, for
the purpofe of filtring, and fold by the
bundle, or two reams, for a moderate
price ; which paper has been examined,
tried, and approved of by Dr. Crichton
and other experienced chymifts.

I finilh now thefe accounts and obfer-
vations which I thought proper to add
to this work, and I proceed with the
hiftorical account of the fubftances which
have been ufed to defcribe events, and
to convey ideas, from the earlieft date to
the invention of paper.

In the moft ancient time, when writing
was not yet discovered, very fimple means

were

[ 91 1

were ufed to preferve the remembrance of
important events. Tradition represented,
therefore, during many centuries, what
now is more completely effected by wri-
ting and printing. Trees were planted,
heaps of ilone, or unornamented altars and
pillars, were erected, plays and feftivals
were ordered, and fongs fung to keep up
the recollection of paft facts. The facred
hiftory mentions, that the Patriarchs erected
altars or heaps of ftones as remembrances
of pari: events.

Rough ftones and flakes were the rlrft
reminding letters of the Phoenicians. In
the environs of Cadiz, feveral heaps of
"ftones have been found; monuments of
Hercules's expedition againft Spain. The
ancient inhabitants of the North placed,
in different fituations, ftones of an extraor-
dinary large fize, to remember great events.
And we have found* in modern times, that
the favages in America do the fame ; and
g 3 forae

[ 92 ]

fome place bows on the tombs of men,
and mortars with peftles on the tombs of
women. It has been likewife a cuftom to
give names to certain places, and their
environs, which referred to the transactions
and deeds which there took place.

Since the art of writing was invented,
feveral materials have been ufed, on which
was engraved or written what was wifhed
to be conveyed to pofterity. But nothing
pofitive can be afcertained with refpect
to the different materials employed by the

ancients for that purpofe, except that a
diftindtion has been made between public
records and private writings. For the firfl ;
ftones, timber, and metals, were chiefly
ufed ; and, for the latter, leaves and bark
of trees. The Egyptians, the inhabitants
of the Northern countries, and feveral
others, made ufe of ftones, rocks, and pil-
lars, for that purpofe.

Job

[ S3 ]

Job mentions rocks as the materials ufed
in his time ; and the Danes engraved like-
wife upon rocks the deeds of their ancestors.

Jofephus has related, that the children
of Seth had, before the deluge, erected
two pillars, and thereupon engraved their
inventions and aftronomical difcoveries, the
one of which was of ftone, and the other
of brick-clay, becaufe they had heard,
from their grandfather, Adam, that the
world would be deftroyed once by fire,
and once by water ; and, to prevent their
knowledge of the motion of planets, &c.
being loft to pofterity, they had engraved
it on the before-mentioned pillars, the
one of which could not be deftroyed by
water, nor the other by fire; and the fame
author ftates, that the fame pillar of ftone
exifted ftill, in his time, in the country
of Siriad. But where that country was
fituated is very difficult to afcertain; fome
fay in Syria. Mariham, Vofz, and others,
g 4 aflert

[ W ]

aflfert it to be Seirath, mentioned in the
Scripture, (Judges, chap. iii. ver. 26) ; the
raoft likely fuppofition feems to be, accor-
ding to Dodwell, Stillingfleet, and Fabricius,
that it was fituated in Egypt.

Thefe pillars bring into recollection others
more celebrated, erected by Bacchus, Her-
cules, Oilris, and Sefoftris, to commemo-
rate their exploits. But the moft famous
were the pillars of Mercury Trifmegiftus,
on which his doctrines and rules were
engraved with hieroglyphic characters.
Porphyrius mentions fome pillars in the
Ifland of Crete, on which the facrificial
fervice of Cybeles, and the religious rites
were engraved; and, at the time of De-
mofthenes, there was ftill a column of
ftone exifting, on which the code of laws
was engraved. Numerous other pillars
could be mentioned, but it is fufficiently
afcertained, that the moft ancient nations
were not acquainted with any other me-
thod

t »* ]

thod of keeping in remembrance their
code of laws, a&s and contracts, the hif-
tory of events, and important difcoveries;
and thefe public records have been the
fources of knowledge of the ancient au-
thors.

It was likewife a cuftom to write on
bricks, and ftone plates, principally to
immortalize laws, inftitutions, and impor-
tant events.

The Babylonians, according to Pliny,
wrote their firft aftronomical oblervations
on bricks, and the Oftracifm * of the Athe-
nians

* The OJtracifm wa? invented by the Athenians
when they became jealous of Ariftides, who at firft
was loved and refpe&ed, and received for his furname
the Juft. But elevated with victories, they thought
therafelves capable of every thing, and were uneafy
to fee a fellow-citizen raifed to fuch extraordinary
honour arid diftinflion;. they aflembled at Athens
from all towns in Attica, and banifhed Ariftides by
the Oftracifm; difguifing their envy of his character

under

[ to ]

nians was fometimes infcribed on oiftei'-

flielis,

under the fpecious pretence of guarding againft tyranny.
The Oftracifm was conducted in the following manner :
every citizen took a piece of a broken pot, or a fhell, on
which he wrote the name of the perfort he wanted' to
have banifhed, and carried it to a part of the market-
place that was enclofed with wooden rails; the magif-
trates then counted the number of the fhells, and pieces
of broken pots; and if it did not amount to fix thou-'
fand, the Oftracifm flood for nothing; if it did, they
forted them, and the perfon whofe name was found on
the greatefl number, was declared an exile for ten years,
but with permiflion to enjoy his eftate.

At the time that Ariftides was banifhed, when the
people were infcribing the names on the fhells, and pieces
of broken pots, it is reported that an illiterate burgher
came to Ariftides, whom he took for fome ordinary
perfon, and giving him his fhell, defired him to write
Ariftides upon it. The good man, furprifed at the
adventure, afked him " Whether Ariftides had ever
" injured him?" " No," faid he; <c nor do I even
" know him ; but it vexes me to hear him conftantly
" praifed, and every where called the Jujl." Arif-
tides made no anfwer, but took the fhell ; and having
written his own name upon it, returned it to the man.
Thus was the man rewarded who was the deliverer of
Athens, and had by uprightnefs andjuftice fo greatly
contributed to its happinefs. When he quitted Athens,
he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and, agreeably
to his character, made a prayer different from that o£

Achilles,

[ 97 1
(hells, and in general on the fragments of
broken pots.

The mod ancient monuments of Chinefe
knowledge were engraved on hard and
large Hones. The ten commandments
were written on Hone or marble plates ;
which feems more likely than as is fup-
pofed by fome fanciful writers, who, to
dignify thofe tables, hold out, that they
were made of precious ftones, rubies, car-
buncles, or amethyits; but as notbing of
this appears in the facred original, it is
more probable that they were of fuch

flones

Achilles, namely, " That the people of Athens might
" never fee the day which fhould force them to remem-
" ber Ariftides." Three years after, the Athenians
reverfed this decree, and by a public ordinance recalled
ail the exiles. The principal inducement was their
fear of Ariftides ; for they were apprehenfive that he
might join the enemy, corrupt great part of the citizens,
and draw them over to the intereft of the enemy. But
they little knew the worthy man; for, before this ordi-
nance of theirs, he had been exciting and encouraging
.the Greeks to defend their libertv,

t ^ ]

ftones as were found at the (pot, which
anight be mofl likely marble, being abun-
dant in Egypt, and which were hewn,
and polifhed, by the hand, or direaion of
Mofes. Jofhua wrote the other laws on
plates of the fame kind, and the names
of the twelve Jewifh tribes were carved
on precious Hones on the ephod of the
high prieft. The infcriptions on Mount
Sinai, and the furrounding mountains, ought
to be noticed here, if their antiquity could
be ascertained. The hieroglyphics of the
Egyptians, who boafted to be the moft
ancient of all nations, are chiefly found
on ob^lifks, ftone pillars, &c. and the de-
crees of Lycurgus were carved in (lone.
A very ancient Grecian fuperfcription on
ftone is exifting on the weft borders of
Afia Minor, where the Mitylenians have
built the city of Sigium, from the ga-
thered ftones of the city of Troy. This
city was deftroyed long ago by the Ilien-
fians; the ftone ftill lies in the village of

leni-

[ 99 ]

leni-HhTary, called, by the Turks, Gaurkioi,
before the porch of the Greek church,
and is ufed for a feat. The inscription on
this ftone is now upwards of 2360 years
old. William Sherard, Efq. Britifh Conful
at Smyrna, took the firft copy of it; and
Samuel Lifle, preacher to the Englifh re-
siding at Smyrna, copied it carefully, and
it was afterwards engraved and printed in
London, on nine meets, by his Majefty's
chaplain, Edmund Chiihull, with explana-
tions, in the year 1721. Still more ancient
infcriptions at Amyclae, have been
discovered, and published by Fourmont
and Barthemely. They are written
in the fame manner as thofe of Sigeum,
refembling plough -furrows, but they go
from the right to the left, and were
preferved in the Royal Cabinet, at Paris.
Numerous other ancient infcriptions on
ftone are found commemorated in Carften
Niebuhr's Travels in Arabia. The conven-
tion of the Smyrnans and Magnefians was

engraved

[ ioo ]

engraved on marble 270 years before
the birth of Chrift, and the Jus Publicum
of the Athenians was engraved on trian-
gular ftones named Cyrbes. Numerous
old inferiptions in the Etrufcan, Greek,
and Latin languages, on ftone and marble,
on plates, urns, vafes, and farcophagi,
are ftill preferved in the Jirft and feventh
room of the gallery of the Grand Duke of
Tufcany at Florence ; and in the firft room of
that gallery are feveral inferiptions on burnt
clay, with which the Etrufcans covered
the unburnt bodies of their deceafed friends.
The Latin incriptions are divided into twelve
claffes. The firft thereof commences with
the gods, and their priefts. In each of them
are preferved fome of thofe which have
been brought from Africa by Pagni,
defcribed by Gori, Falconieri, and Spon;
they are diftinguifhed by the Greek *■
which is ufed in the place of the Latin I.
The fecond clafs relates to the Emperors,
and contains amongft others the fo much

admired

t 101 ]
admired bafes by Maffei, and a large epifty-
lium which is fattened in the wall above
the principal door. It was found with four
others at Civita Vecchia in a dark repofitory
belonging to monuments facred to Tiberius
and Livia. It is worth the notice of anti-
quarians, that on this marble after the name
of Tiberius fome of the infcription has been
erafed, and replaced with the words DIVAE
AUGUSTAE, which may be occafioned by
Claudius's adoration of Livia. The third
clafs refers to the confufs and other
Romans of rank. The fourth, to the Ro-
man municipalities, to which have been
added a great many, new and beautiful.
The fifth, for the publick buildings and
plays in which the mile-pillars are in-
included. The fixth, for the military.
The feventh, and eighth, contain the titles
given by furviving relations to their
deceafed anceftors. The ninth, relates
to flaves who got their freedom. The
tenth contains monuments of chriftianity.

The

[ 102 ]

The eleventh, fuch infcriptions of only the
names of deceafed perfons. And the
twelfth is a mixture of different infcriptions,
amongft whom many are doubtful and feem
to be counterfeited. But Maffei in his Arte
critica lapidaria, recommends notwithstand-
ing the prefervation of thefe infcriptions,
becaufe they may ferve for publick infor-
mation, and principally, that at one time
or the other it may be proved, they are
genuine, as has been the cafe with the
infeription of Scipio Barbatus, and feveral
others in the collection of Riccardi, which
were declared by Maffei, to be counterfeit.
But notwithstanding feveral of them have
been proved to be counterfeit, by the
colour of the marble, the raoft part are ge-
nuine, which fatisfaclorily proves the art
of writing was known to the ancients.

But thefe materials were foon found
to be difficult to write upon, and therefore
others, more fimple and more convenient,

were

X 103 J

Were fought for. Bricks and Hones were
changed for diffeient kinds of metals, and
lead became then the moft ancient writing,
fubftance. Job mentions, in chapter xix.
verfe 24, engravings with an iron pea
on lead ; and Paufanias fays, that Hefiod's
Opera et Dies was written on leaden tables,
which were preferved on the mountain of
Helicon. Pliny ftates, that lead was ufed
for writing, which was rolled up like a
cylinder. Hirtius wrote to Decius Brutus
on leaden tables. In Italy were preferved
two documents of Pope Leo III. and
Luitbrand, King of the Longobards; and,
according to Kircher's Mufeum, table X.
many more of fuch writings on lead are
to be found. For example, ^Montfaucor*
notices a very ancient book of eight leaden
leaves, the firft and laft was ufed as a
cover, and that it contains numerous myf-
terious figures of the Bafilidians, and words
partly Greek, and partly of Etrufcan let-
ters. On the back were rings fattened, by
h means

[ 104 ]

means of a fmall leaden rod, to keepr
them together. Paufanias notices likewife,
in his Meflfenica, that Epiteles dug up out
of the earth a brafs vefTel, or urn, which
he carried to Epaminondas, (about 350 or
360 years before the birth of Chrift,) in
which there was a fine plate of lead or
tin, rolled up in the form of a book, on
which were written the rites and ceremo-
nies of the great goddefles. And we have
a late difcovery of writing on lead, if the
account given in the Gentleman's Maga-
zine, July 1757, may be depended on; it
is no longer ago than in the year 304.
" In a ftone cheft, the acts of the council
of Illiberis, held anno 304, were found at
Granada in Spain; they are written or
engraved on plates of lead, in Gothic
characters, and are now tranflating into
Spanifh."

Bronze was afterwards more frequently
ufed than lead, as is certified in the Hif-

tory

[ 105 ]

tory of the Maccabees, by Dionyfius of
Halicarnaflus, Cicero, Livy, Pliny, Suetonius,
and Julius Obfequens. Phoenician letters
were on the kettle of bronze, devoted by
Cadmus to Minerva, who was adored at
Lindus, on the ifland of Rhodes. But, as
the kettle is not only loft, and the copies
of the infcription, with thofe of Cadmifian
letters, on feveral tripod vefTels, mentioned
by Herodotus, and others, I mall confine
myfelf to thofe which ftill exift, of which
the mod remarkable are the famous
Scriptum de Bachanalibus, in the Imperial

Library; Trajan's Tabula Alimentaria ; and
the helmet, found at Cannae, with Punic
letters, defcribed in the Mufeo Etrufco of
Gori, and which is now in the third room
of the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuf-
cany, at Florence. ' I cannot omit noticing
the eight tables of bronze, found in the
town of Gubbio, in a fubterraneous cabinet,
when, in the year 1 4*44, parts of an amphi-
theatre were removed : on feven tables the
H 2 infcriptions

[ l06 ]

infcriptions were in the Latin, and one in
the Etrufcan language. Since that time
feveral bronze tables, with Etrufcan wri-
ting, have been dug up in Tufcany. The
feven Latin have been defcribed and en-
graved on copper-plates, by Merula, Gruter,
and others, and one by Thomas Demfter. ■

The criminal, civil, and ceremonial laws
of the Greeks have been engraved on
bronze tables, and the fpeech of Claudius,
engraved on plates of bronze, are yet pre-
served at the town-hall of Lyons, in France.

The celebrated ftatutes or laws on twelve
tables, the major part of which the Ro-
mans copied from the Grecian code, were
firft written on tables of oak, but according
to others on ten ivory tables, and hung up
pro rqftris. But, after they had been
approved by the people, they were en-
graved in bronze. But thefe were melted
through lire occafioned by lightning which

(truck

[ 107 ]

flruck the capitolium, and confumed like-
wife numerous other laws for the cities and
country, which were there depofited; the
lofs thereof was highly regretted by the
.Emperor Octavius Auguftus. The laws of
the Cretans were likewife engraved in
bronze; and the Romans etched, in gene-
ral, their code plebifcita, contracts, conven-
tions, and public records, in brafs, not
only during the exiftence of the republic^
but likewife under the reign of the Empe-
rors. The magiftrates of Athens Were
chofen by lot; the names of the candidates
were written on bronze plates, and put into
an urn, with white and black beans, and
the perfon whofe name was taken out with
a white bean was elected.

The pacts between the Romans, Spartans,
and the Jews, were written on brafs, which
method was likewife obferved by the guilds
and private perfons who ufually, for fecu-
r*ty> got the land-marks of their eftates
h 3 engraved

[ 108 ]

engraved on metal; and in many cabinets
are yet to be feen the difcharges of foldiers
written on copper-plates. It is not long
fince, at Mongheer, in Bengal, a copper-
plate was dug up, on which characters of
Schanfcreet were etched Signifying a gift
of land, from Bideram Gunt Raja of Ben-
gal, to one of his fubjects. This bill of
feoffment, on copper, is dated 100 years
before the birth of Chrift, and proves at
the fame time that the Indians were,
about two thoufand years ago, in a high
degree of cultivation. Such genuine docu-
ments, written on fuch hard fubftances, in
more modern times are very fcarce. The
Archbifhop Adelbert, of Mentz, ordered
a grant to be engraved on metal plates,
which privilege is kept over the door-wings
of the church B. Maria Virginis ad gradus,
in Mentz; and, in 1011, thefe door-wings
were manufactured of caft metal, refem-
bling bronze, by the Archbiihop Willigis,

The

I 109 ]

The Abbot Cabent, and the Benedictine
Monk Legipont, entertain the opinion,
that the mod ancient writing material
which has been ufed was wood. It is cer-
tain that box-wood, deals, and ivory tables,
have in thofe times been occafionally made
ufe of to write upon, but of the precife time
nothing can be afcertained with certainty.

Ifaiah (chapter xxx. verfe 8), and Ha-
bakkuk (chapter ii. verfe 2), make mention
of writings upon tables, that it may be
remembered for the time to come, for
ever and ever.* Solon's Civil Laws were
written on boards, which were placed in

a machine,

* Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs, (chap. iii.
ver. 3.) in allufion to this way of writing on thin
flices of wood, advifes his fon, to write his precepts
upon the table of his heart. Solomon lived about one
thoufand years before the birth of Chrift, and Habak-
kuk near four hundred years later; between which
two different periods, different authors place the birth
of Homer. This proves, that the pugillares, or tables
of wood to write on, were, in ufe before Homer's
time, but how long before, no authentic account can
be obtained.

[ 110 ]

a machine, constructed to turn them eafily,
called axones; and, even in the fourth
century, the laws of the Emperors were
publifhed on wooden tables, painted with
cerufe, which gave rife to the expreffion in
Horace : Leges incidere ligno* The Swedes
had the fame cuftom, for which reafon the
laws are dill by them named, Balkar*
originating from a piece of timber, called
Balkan, which is a balk or beam.

The Greeks and Romans ufed commonly;
at an early period, either plain wooden
boards or covefed with wax. The Greeks
called wooden boards which were not
covered with wax* Scheda or Schedula.
On fuch Schedulas was written, in the
Hebrew language, the Gofpel of Matthew,
which, according to Baronius, in his
Mariyrologmm Romanum, was found in the
tomb of the Apoltle Barnabas, The name
of pugillares given by the ancient Romans,
originates from pugillumf becaufe they

could

[ 111 ]

could be held in one hand; thefe tablets

alfo were fometimes called codices and

codiciW; from caudes, the trunk of a tree,

being cut into thin dices, and finely planed*

and polifhed; and they ufually confifted

of two, three, five, and fometimes of

more leaves; from whence they were more

diftinguimingly denominated by the Greeks

diptychd) triptycha, and pentaptycha; and

thofe leaves, being waxed over, or overlaid

with wax, were named Pugillaris cerei, and

were written upon, with an inftrument

called a ftile. Yet it is very probable, that

thofe tablets, being only thin flices of wood,

having a fmooth furface, were at firft

written upon juft as they were planed ; and

that the overlaying them with wax, was

an improvement of that invention. Perfons

who would privately correfpond, or give

fecret intelligence to others, wrote it on

plain wooden boards, on which they laid

. wax after they had written on the wood.

Pliny allures us, that the writing on wooden

boards

[ H2 ]

boards was a cuftom even before the Trojan
war. Such boards have been fometimes
fimply named Cera, from which originate
the defcription Cera prima, Cera fecunda,
Cera tertia, &c. which fignifies the firft
fecond, and third page. The ancient
Jurifts unite often the words Tabula and
Cerae. It appears notwithstanding, that
they defcribe under the denomination of
Tabulisy a carefully written work, and
under that of Ceris and Pugillaribus, they
comprehend a carelefs written manufcript,
or copy of writing. Numerous teftaments
have been made on Tabulas ceratas. But I
recommend attention to the flated boards or
tables, to prevent mifreprefentation ; be-
caufe, under the general defcription of
Tabula, is often underltood not only wooden
boards, but alfo ftone, ivory, and metal
tables and plates.

.The Romans employed for common ufe,
and principally for writing letters, fmall

boards

t "3 ]

boards of common wood, overlaid with
bees wax, which were fealed in linen
clothes; and, if the laft will was written
upon thefe boards, they were run through,
and joined together with lace or tape.
They ufed likewife very thin levelled
boards, of foft wood, named, according to.
Martial, Tenues tabellas, which were not
overlaid with wax, but in which the
ietters were carved.

In the archives of the town-hall in
Hanover, are kept twelve wooden boards,
overlaid with bees wax, on which are
written the male and female names of
owners of houfes, and of houfes without
noticing the ftreets; but, as Hanover was
divided, in 1428, into ftreets, We have
reafon to believe, that thefe wooden manu-
fcripts are more ancient. Thefe boards
are apparently of beech wood, and have
on the four corners an elevation, and the
places within are filled up with green

wax.

[ n* ]

wax. The firft and lad table ferve, at the
fame time, as a cover, and are, therefore,
only on one fide overlaid with wax, but the
others on both fides. Thefe twelve boards
form therefore only twenty-two pages; the
outfide boards are joined by a piece of
leather parted on them, to form the back
of the book, and the leather is fattened,
by nails, to the qther ten boards. This
curious manufcript book is one foot five
inches high, eight and an half inches Wide,
and about five and an half inches thick,
or each leaf about half an inch. There
is, befides the before-mentioned elevation
on the four corners, another crofs eleva-
tion, which divides every meet into four
fquare columns : on each page are between
fixty and feventy lines of Monfcifh letters,
which are apparently prefled in they wax
with a fefcue. Seven pages are in good
prefervation. Another manufcript, much
like this, is in the gallery at Florence, in
the third room in the eleventh ferine;

another

t H5 ]

another in the city library of Geneva ; and
feveral are ftill exifting in other libraries^
and archives, of which I only will notice
the wooden Runen-almanack ; and the
waxed boards which are, according to
Lewis of Strafbourgb, ftill preferved in the
church of the SaHnes at Halle*

The rich Romans ufed, inftead of wooden
boards overlaid with bees wax, thin pieces
of ivory, named libri eborei, or libri ele-
phantini; and Ulpian flates, that the prin-*
cipal transactions of .great princes have
been ufually written with a black colour
on ivory. Flavias Vopifcus fays, that there
was a book of ivory in the library of
Ulpian. The exiftence of ivory books has
been fully afcertained by Martial, Salma-
fius, and Schwarz, notwithstanding other
authors have held out, that the name of
libri elephantini originates from the enor-
mous fize of thefe books, or from the
interlines of elephants, on which they

have

[ 116 ]

have been written; but this is certain, that
only the great and the rich were able to
vife ivory tables, becaufe they were fcarce
and dear.

It muft be bbferved, that thefe wooden
tables overlaid with wax were of different
fizes; and, according to Quintilian, like-'
wife ufed to teach writing to beginners;
and, according to Cicero, it feems that the
critics were accuftomed by reading wax
manufcripts to notice obfcure or wrong
phrafes, by joining a piece of red wax.
The Greeks and Romans continued ftill to
make ufe of fuch boards, even at the time
when writing on leaves of trees, on Egyp-
tian Paper* on membranous fubftances,
and on parchment, was already adopted,
becaufe they could thereupon put down
their fugitive ideas, and change or correct
them eafily, before they wrote on other
fubftances ; and it has been proved, that
even when linen Paper was firft difcpvered,

fuch

[ 117 ]

fuch boards have been fometimes made ufe
of. The Chinefe have, in very ancient
times, likewife written with large iron
tools on boards, pieces of bamboo, and
occafionally on metal.

Curious refearchers are recommended to
confult Perizonius's inuructive notes upon
the 12th chapter of the 14th book of
Aelian's Various Hiftory, where we are
informed alfo, that thefe wooden table-
books were often made of the linden or
lime-tree, as well as of box, to which the
maple may be likewife added, which,
being capable of an elegant polifh, was
ufed for the fame purpofe. Thus Ovid
fays,

Veneri jidas Jibi Nafo Tabdlas

Dedicat, at nupervilejuijlis Acer

This trufty table-book,

To thee, O Venus, now I dedicate,

Which was but worthlefs maple. wood of late.

But

E us ]

But box was neverthelefs commonly ufecl,
and we may judge of the ornaments of
thofe wooden books from the following
diftich in Propertius.

Non * Mas Jixum caras effecerat aurum,
Vulgari huxofordida cera fuit.

With gold my tablets were not coftly made,
On common box the fordid wax was laid.

The ufe of boards was fuperfeded by
the ufe of the leaves of palm, olive, poplar,
and other trees. According to Pliny, the
Egyptians were the firfl who wrote on
palm leaves, for which reafon their letters
obtained the name of Phcenixcian letters,
becaufe the Greeks called the palm-tree
Phcenix. In the library of the city of
Strahlfund is a book ftill to be feen, written
on palm leaves. The Malabars yet write
on leaves of the palm, Corypha umbra
xulifera, and form the letters with a fefcue
at leaft twelve inches long, and anoint the

leaves
* Tabellas.

[ 119 ]

leaves afterwards with oil. The written
letters are rolled up. Their books are of
many fuch leaves, which are joined toge-
ther with a tape, and framed between two
thin boards of the fame fize. There are
Bibles itill preferved, written on fuch
leaves ; one of them, the Telugian or
Warugian Bible, is to be feen in the library
of the univerfity of Gottingen, containing
5376 leaves, formed into forty-five meets,
which has been purchafed from Baum-
garten, in a public fale ; another is at
Copenhagen ; and one in the Orphan's
houfe, at Halle ; which are all the copies
of this fcarce work to be found in Eu-
rope ; but that preferved at Halle is, ac-
cording to Dreyhaupt, not. written in the
Telugian, but in the Damulian language.
The explanation of twelve large volumes,
with plants of Malabar, to be feen in the
Academical Mufeum at Gottingen, is moftly
drawn with a fefcue on palm leaves. In
HefTelberg's library, at Copenhagen, was a

i part

[ 120 ]

part of the New Teftament, written in the
Malabar language, on palm leaves. The
Bramin manufcript, in the Kulingiennian
language, which was fent from Fort St.
George to Oxford, is of Malabar palm
leaves ; and Mr. Aflle Itates, in his Origin
and Progrefs of Writing, (chapter iv.
page 49,) that in Sir Hans Sloane's library
were more than twenty manufcripts of
palm leaves, written in different Afiatic
languages; and he fays, (chapter viii.
p3ge 203,) that he himfelf is in poffeffion
of a manufcript, written on palm leaves,
in the Peguan language, which is twenty-
one inches long, and three inches and an
half , wide ; the ground of which is richly
ornamented with gold, and the letters are
inlaid with a black gummy-like fubftance.

Knox ftates, in his Hiftory of Ceylon,
that there grows a kind of palm tree, of
which the leaves are woolly, and of con-
fiderable breadth, named the pananga tree,

which

[ 121 ]

which are ufed by the inhabitants for wri-
ting, tifter having taken off the outer (kin.
They ufe talipot-tree leaves for the fame
purpofe.

Pliny, who was a diligent enquirer into
antiquity, fays,' fpeaking particularly of
the Egyptians, that1 they wrote upon the
leaves of palm trees ; or, according to the
various reading of.malvarum for palmarum,
upon the leaves of mallows. But it is pro-
bable, the ancients wrote upon any leaves
that they could make fit for that purpofe.
Hoffman, in his Lexicon, under the word
palma, ftates, from Petrus de la Valle, that
the Indian Brachmans write upon the
leaves of palm trees, and that one of
them made him a prefent of a book
compofed of thefe leaves. It was like-
wife the cuftom of the Sibyls of old to
write their prophecies upon leaves, as
appears by the following lines in Virgil,
(iEneid, lib. iii. v. 44-3.)

I 9 ♦ A raging

[ 122 ]

A raging prophetefs you there fhall fee,
Who from her cave tings what the fates decree ;
Her myftic numbers writes on leaves, and then
In order lays, and lurks within her den ;
Before the door they lie, as they were plac'd,
But if that.opening, or fome fudden blaft
Should them diforder, fhe no more will fing,
Nor when once fcatter'd, to contexture bring.

This ufage of the Sibyls writing upon leaves
was fo current, that it became proverbial
among the Romans to ufe folium Sibyllae
for any undoubted truth. Thus Juvenal
fays,

Credite me vobis folium recitare Sibyllae,

Believe me, what I here declare to you,
Is truth itfelf ;. no Sibyls leaf more true.

The fentence of bani/hment or pedalifm
fpetalifmusj of the Syracufans, according to
Diodorus Siculus, was written on olive-tree
leaves; and on the fame kind of leaves
were written the names of thofe who were
excluded from the Senate of Athens, which
pumfhment was called Ekphyllophorefis.

The

I 123 J

The Eaft Indians have, and ftill ufe, in
fome parts, leaves for writing. And, ac-
cording to Helvetius Cinna, poplar-tree
leaves have been likewife ufed.

The inhabitants of the Maldivia iflands
write on leaves of the macarcquo tree,
which are three fathoms long, and one
foot wide ; and fometimes on thin wooden
boards after they have been painted white.
In many places in the Eaft Indies, the
leaves of the mufa or banana tree were
ufed for writing, till the Europeans intro-
duced paper ; and in the ifland of Java
they ftill write on the leaves of the lantor
tree, which are very fmooth, and five or
fix feet long. SeveraL other eaftern nations
ufe, for that purpofe, the leaves of the
cocoa tree, the taon-condar tree, and of a
tree named, by the Malays, olen, which
grows every where plentifully in that
country, and is a kind of wild palm tree,
the leaves of which are about one yard and -
i 3 an

[ 124, 1

an half long, and three inches wide ; for
extenfive writings they are tied together.
The letters are written thereon with an
iron tool, which pierces the outfide cover-
ing, and makes indelible letters, which
method is preferred by the Indians, becaufe
they are ruled by the touch and not by
the eye : thofe leaves have a quality which
makes them preferable to our paper.; they
are not only very ftrong, but, if they
remain even for a long time in water, they
are not liable to rot or grow tender, and
the writing is not deftroyed, for which
reafon the natives continued to ufe them,
notwithstanding many paper-mills have
been erected in India. It is remarkable,
that poplar-tree leaves were principally
ufed for facred writings, which may be the
reafon why Pythagoras calls the leaf of the
poplar-tree, a facred leaf.

The cuftom of writing on leaves of trees
was fuperfeded by the ufe of the raw bark

of

t 125 ]

of trees, and the interior bark of the lime
tree, of which Suidas remarks, that it re-
fembles Papyrus ; and alfo the bark of
elder, elm, and birch tree. The exterior
bark (cortex) was feldom ufed, being too
coarfe in general, and not fufficiently
fmooth to write on legibly and eafily.
The interior bark (liber) was therefore pre-
ferred, being fmooth and fine. From this
originates the Latin name for a book. To
carry thofe barks commodioufly in the
pocket, they were rolled up, and called
volumen; which name has been continued
for rolls of paper and parchment, and for
books, notwithstanding our books have a
a very different fhape. The name coder,
or more properly caudex, ftill in ufe, ori-
ginates in a. like manner: and notwith-
ftanding its true meaning is the trunk of a
tree, it was adopted to defcribe many
flieets of the faid bark-fhavings together.

The fhape of the bark-fhavings on which
I 4 the

[ 126 1

the ancient Europeans wrote was not all of
the fame fize, and thole manuscripts are
very fcarce. Montfaucon fays that there
are none in Italy, and that he found only
one in the archives of the city of St. Denis,
in France. Cragus faw in the city of Chur,
in Switzerland, fome verfes of Virgil written
on the interior bark of the birch tree. It
is ftated in ARa Petropolitand, torn x.
page 449, that many whole books of this
kind have been found in Siberia, the letters
of which were in the language of the
Calmuks. The ancient favorite fong: Eija
mit hierta rati zmierlig, &c. was called the
Birch fong, becaufe Elfa, the daughter of
Andres, had originally written it on the
bark of a birch tree. The protocols o£
the Emperors were in thefe times. written
on the fame writing-material to prevent
falfifying, becaufe, if the furface was
fhaved in the fmalleft degree, the letters
were deftroyed, and could not be replaced
by others. Several nations ufe it ftill for

writing,

[ '27 ]

writing, notwithstanding paper is well
known to them. Mr. von Jufti afferts
that he pofleffes a letter written, in the
Malabar language, on the bark of a tree ;
and the Orphan-houfe at Halle, in Ger-
many, pofTefTes likewife a large manufcript
with Bomanian letters. In Sir Hans Sloane's
library, was a manufcript written in Patta-
nian characters ; and a letter of a Nabob,
two yards long, richly ornamented with
gold. In the Britifh Mufeum are feveral
pieces of the exterior and interior bark of
trees, written on ; and many more are in
other Britifh libraries. In the gallery of
the Grand Duke of Tufcany, at Florence,
in the third apartment and the eleventh
partition, are feveral writings on bark, but
not ancient : but of the antiquity of a very
great number of the like manufcripts in
the Vatican library, in Greek, Hebrew,
Arabic, and Latin, there is not the leaft
doubt.

To

[ 128 ]

To this fucceeded the method of paint-
ing the letters with pencils, on linen and
cotton : — whether thefe cloths were of the
fame kind as thofe now in ufe, cannot be
afcertained. According to Symmachius, a
great many of the prophecies of the Sybils
were likewife written on linen cloth. And
Livy ftates the fame, of the annual regifters
of the Romans. But Pliny fays, linen
was only ufed for writing in private affairs,
notwithstanding,. Livy and Claudian, and
the Theodofian Codex have proved the
contrary; and in the latter (tit. xxvii.
cap. 1 1 .) is principally noticed a law, written
on mappas linteas. The Chinefe wrote two
thoufand years ago, in the reign of Tfin, .
before they invented the art of making
paper, on pieces of linen or filk, cut to fuch
a fize as they wifhed to have the book.
But it was not ufual for the Greeks to write
on linen. Count Caylus remarks, that there
were found, fometimes in the boxes con-
taining Egyptian mummies, very neat cha-

characters.

[ 129 ]

characters, written on linen. It feems natural,
that all linen, ufed for writing, muft have
been fteeped in iize or gum, or the ink
and paint muft have blotted.

Of the inhabitants of Partha, it is faid
that they wrote upon the fame fluff o*f '
which they made clothes. And fome
Indians write yet on a kind of cloth, named
Syndon.

But, as linen was too much fubject to
become mouldy, animals were then

attacked, to furnifh ftuff for a writing
material: — their ikins (coria) were princi-
pally ufed to write upon, after they had
been tanned on both fides :' thofe of fheep,
goats, and affes were preferred. Several
books, written on thefe, were in the Vatican
library; in that of the King of France; and
in leveral others. In the convent of the
Dominican monks at Bologna, are two
books of Efdras, written On afles (kins, which

are

I 13° 3

are faid to be the original manufcripts of
Efdras himfelf: but it is certain that it
has been written only about five hundred
years ago, and it looks like leather. This
copy was given to the Prior Aymerico,
of that convent, by a Jew, in the com-
mencement of the fourteenth century, who
by this bribe endeavoured to fecure his
fellow Jews againft the Inquifition, and
therefore to make it the more precious
and valuable arTured the Prior it was the
genuine hand-writing of Ezra.

The ancient Perfians and Ionians wrote
on hides from which the hair was fcraped.
And the fhepherds in former times wrote
their fongs with thorns and awls on ftraps
of leather, which they wound round their
crooks.

The Icelanders fcratched their runes, a
kind of figurative writing, or hieroglyphic,
fometimes on walls: and it is noticed in

the

t 131 ]

the Laxdacla Saga, that Olof, at Hiardar-
hult, has built a large houfe, on the balks
and fpars of which he has got engraved the
hiftory of his own and more ancient times:
and Thorkil Hake wrote his own deeds, in
thofe hieroglyphics, on his chair and bed.
The most ancient runes' are traced to the
third century; and the most ancient hif-
torian, who mentioned them, is Venantius
Fortunatus, who lived in the iixth century.*
Of thefe letters, or hieroglyphics, there
were no more than iixteen in the whole;
but as, in the year one thoufand, the Chrif-
tian faith was introduced into Iceland, they
were found infumcient, and Latin letters
were adopted.

Puricelli maintains, that the Italian
Kings, Hugo and Lotharis, had given a
grant to the Ambrofian church, at Milan,
written on the fkin of a fifli, which

Muratori

* He fays in Carm. vii. 18, Barbara fraxineis pingatur
Runa tabellis.

r 132 j

Muratori took for a kind of parchment by
the want of fufficient inveftigation.

Not only the fkins of animals were ufed
for a writing fubftance, but alfo bones and
entrails, if they were thought to be fit for
that purpofe. In the hiftory of Mahomet,
is flightly noticed, that the Arabians took
the moulder-bones of (heep, on which they
carved remarkable events with a knife;
and, after tying them with a firing, they
hung their chronicle up in their cabi-
nets.

In the library of the Egyptian King
Ptolomceus Philadelphus, which is faid to
have contained 700,000 volumes, were the
works of Homer, written in golden letters
on the fkins of ferpents and other animals ;
and under the reign of the Emperor Bafi-
lifkus,* was burned, at Conftantinople, a
manufcript one hundred and twenty feet
long, written on the inteftines of beafts, &c.

in

[ !*.* 3

in golden letters, containing Homer's Iliad
and Odyflfey. In the library of the Em-
peror Zeno Ifauricus were likewife Homer's
works, painted in golden letters on the
entrails of animals: and we know, from
Ifodorus, that the inteftines of elephants
have been alfo ufed for writing.

But thefe writing-materials were neither
common writing-maflfes nor in general ufe,
and regarded rather as a rarity. There is
in his Majelty's library at Hanover a letter
engraved on a golden plate, written by
an independant princfc of the coaft of Co-
romandel to King George the Second which
is about three feet long and four inches wide,
and inlaid on both of the narrow fides with
diamonds, which was delivered to the late
Mr. Scheidt, to be there kept.

We arrive now at the period when the
Egyptian Paper was invented, and manufac-
tured from the rind of the Paper-plant,

Papyrus,

[ 134 ]

Papyrus* which grows in the marines on
the borders of the Nile, and is called in
the Egyptian language Berd, or al Berdi.
Theophraftus, Pliny, Guilandin, Profper
Alpin, and other authors, defcribe the

Egyptian

* The Egyptians call it Berd, and they eat that part
of the plant which is near the roots. The internal part
of the bark of this plant was made into paper; and the
manner of the manufa&ure was as follows : Strips, or
leaves of every length that could be obtained, being laid
upon a table, other ftrips were placed acrofs, and palled
to them by the means of water and a prefs, fo that this
paper was a texture of feveral ftrips ; and it even appears
that, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, the Romans
made paper of three lays. Pliny alfo fays, that the
leaves of the Papyrus were fuffered to dry in the fun,
and afterwards diilributcd according to their different
qualities fit for different kind of paper; fcarce more
than twenty ftrips could be feparated from each ftalk.
This paper never exceeded thirteen fingers breadth.
In order to be deemed perfeft, it was to be thin, com-
pact, white, and frnooth. It was fleeked with a tooth,
and this kept it from foaking the* ink; and made it
glifter. It received an agglutination, which was pre-
pared with flour of wheat, diluted with boiling water,
on which were thrown fome drops of vinegar ; or with
crumbs of leavened bread, diluted with boiling water,
and pafled through a bolting cloth. Being afterwards
beaten with a hammer, it was fized a fecond time, put to
the prefs, and extended with the hammer.

[ -135- 1

Egyptian Paper-reed to be a plant of the rufh
kind, which grows in fwamps about ten
cubits long. The ftalk is triangular, and
of a thicknefs to be fpanned; its root
crooked; furrounded, near the root, with
fhort leaves, but naked on the flalk. This
ftalk has on the top a buih, which refem-
bles in fome refpecls a head with hairs,
or of long, thin, ftraight fibres; the root
is brown. After Pliny, Guilandin furnifhes
us with the beft description of the Papyrus,
and the method how it is prepared for the
ufe of writing ; all other fubfequent authors
have, more or lefs, copied them.

The Egyptian Paper-reed which accord-
ing to Strabo grows only in Egypt and
India, and of which in the year feventy-
nine, after the birth of Chriii, a fpecies
was found in the Euphrates near Babylon,
which was equal in quality to the genuine
Egyptian Papyrus for making Paper, muft
not be miftaken, as Ray and others did, for
K the

[ 136 ]

the Papero-plant growing in Sicily, which
much refembles the other. Lobel has
given a defcription of the Sicilian Papers,
in his Adverfariis, and it does not feem
that it has been ufed in ancient time for
making Paper: it is only lately that the
Chevalier Savario Landolina has fent fam-
ples of Paper to the fociety at Gottingen,
manufactured from this plant, according to
the defcription which Pliny has given of
the manufacture of Papyrus,

Many authors believe that the Egyptian
Paper- plant is no more exifting, which
does not feem likely, becaufe it was a
plant in many refpecls of the rufh kind ;
but by the changes which the foil in that
country has experienced, it may have be-
come fcarcer. Neverthelefs, it is not no-
ticed by Pocock ; and Shaw notices it only
amongft the hieroglyphics of the ancient
Egyptians. Maillet obferves (which feems
to be improbable), Je ferais cependant qffez

■portf

[ 137 ]

parte a croire, que ce n'e/l autre chofe que la
plante appellee au Caire figuier d'Adam, et
par les Arabes Mons. Moft of the modern
geographers, who defcribe Egypt, take no
notice of this plant, which may lead us to
believe that they have either no knowledge
thereof, or thought it no object of confe-
quence, but not that it exifts no longer:
and, as Pliny ftates that Papyrus was not
only ufed for making Paper, but for nu-
merous other purpofes, which he des-
cribes, we mud prefume that care would
have been taken to preferve fuch an ufeful
plant.

The Egyptian Paper was manufactured
from the fine pellicles of the Papyrus which
furrounded the trunk (the finer! of which
were in the middle), and not from the
marrow of the plant. Thefe pellicles were
Separated by means of a pin, or pointed
mufcle-mells, and fpread on a table
fprinkled with Nile water, in fuch a form
k 2 . as

C "8 ]

as the fize of the meets required, ' and
warned over with hot glue-like Nile-water,
On the firll layer of thefe flans, a fecond
was laid crofs-wife to fmim the ftieet,
(Plagala) which was preffed, hung up to
dry, and fmoothed and polifhed with a
tooth. The Nile- water was laid on with
great care, to prevent fpots in the Paper.
Twenty Ikins were the utmoft which could
be feparated from one ftalk, arid thofe
neareft to the pith made the fineft Paper,

Twenty fheets, glued together,were called
fcapus, but fometimes feveral fcapi were
glued together, to form a large volumen.
This part of the bufmefs was executed by
the Glutinatoris, the work of whom refem-
bles in many refpecls that of the book-
binders in our time. All perfons who
worked in thefe Paper-manufactures had
names according to their work.

With refpecl to the time when this

Paper

C »39 3

Paper was invented there are different opi-
nions; and even the name of the inventor
is unknown. Some authors have tried to
prove its antiquity from Homer, Hefiod,
and Herodotus, and conjectured that Mofes
had written his books on Egyptian Paper,
whereas Varro ftates that the invention was
not known in the time of Alexander the
Great, which is about four hundred years
before the birth of Chrift ; but as Ariftotle
mentions the book-moths as well-known
infects, it feems likely that the invention
is more ancient; and Pliny refutes Varro,
by quoting Caflfius Hemina, who ftates that

> a writer named Terentius, by digging
a piece of land on mount Janiculum,
found in a ftone box the books of Numa,
written on Egyptian Paper* which was
completely preferved, notwithstanding it
had been 350 years buried in the earth,
becaufe it had been ileeped in oil of cedar;
and that Mucian, who was three times

conful, had aflured* him, that during the
k 3 time

[ 140 ]

time he was commander-in-chief in Lycia,
he had feen there, in a temple, a letter of
the Lycian King, Sarpedon, written on
Egyptian Paper. It is true Guilandin has
proved that the Paper-reed was known long
before the reign of Alexander the Great,
which he ftates was ufed for feveral pur-
pofes, but thereby cannot be pofitively
afcertained that it was ufed as Paper-ftufF.

Neverthelefs, it is remarked by Varro,
that foon after the time that Alexander
built Alexandria in Egypt, the making
paper of the Papyrus for writing on, was
firft found out in that country. On the
invention of which, all the other ways of
writing were in a great degree * fuperfeded ;

no

*This mall be understood, with fome reft ri£t ion ;
for wooden table-books continued in ufe for ages
after. The father of John the Baptift, did not afk for
pen, ink, and paper, but a writing-table, to write his
name in. Nay, they were common fo late as the fourth
century, as appears from the ftory of Caflianus, told by

Prudentius

[ 1*1 ]

no materials till then invented being more
convenient to write upon than this. There-
fore when Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of
Egypt, began to make a great library,
and to collect all forts of books, he
caufed them to be all copied on this
new invented paper. And it was exported
alfo for the ufe of other countries, till
Eumenes, King of Pergamus, endeavour-
ing to form a library at Pergamus, which

mould

Prudentius as follows: Caflianus was the firft Bifliop of
Siben in Germany, where he built a church in the year
350. But being banifhed from thence by the infidels,
he fled to Rome ; and was afterwards obliged to keep a
publick School for a living at Forum Cornetii, now
called Imola, an epifcopal city in Italy, But in 365,
he was taken by order of Julian the Apoftate, and ex-
pofed to the incenfed cruelty of his fcholars, who killed
bim with their pugillarcs, having firft tortured him with
great cruelty with the fomejiyles, with which he had
taught them to write. From hence it appears, that fome
of thofe table-books, efpecially fuch as fcholars learned
to write in, were pretty large and heavy. Which is
alfo conBrmed by fome lines in Plautus, where he fays,
that a boy of feven years old, broke bis mailers head*
with his table-book,

[ 142 ]

mould outdo, that at Alexandria, occafi-
oned a prohibition to be pyt upon the ex-
portation of that commodity; for Ptolemy,
to put a flop to Eumenes's emulation in this
particular, forbad the carrying any more
paper out of Egypt. This put Eumenes
upon the invention of making paper of
Parchment, and on them he thenceforth
got copied fuch of the works of learned
men, as he afterwards placed in his li-
brary; and hence parchment is called
pergamena in Latin, from the City Per-
gamus, in Lefler-Afia, where it was firft
ufed for this purpofe amongft the Greeks.
But that Eumenes, on this occafion, firft
invented the art of making parchment, is
dubious; for in Ifaiah viii. 1. Jeremiah
xxxvi. 2. Ezekiel ii. 9. and other parts of
the Scriptures, we find mention made of
rolls of writing ; and might not thofe rolls
be of parchment? And it is faid by Dio-
dorus Siculus, that the ancient Perfians
wrote all their records on fkins; and

Herodotus

t "3 ]
Herodotus tells us of ftieep-fldns and goat-
(kins having been made life of in writing by
the ancient Ionians many hundred years
before Eumenes's time. It feems there-
fore poflible, that Eumenes found out a
better way of dreffing them for this ufe
at Pergamus, and perhaps it thenceforth
became the chief trade of the place;
and either of thefe is reafon enough
from pergamenus to call them pergamence.
There is indeed in our Englifh tranfla-
tion of Ifaiah's prophecy concerning Egypt,
mention made of paper reeds by the
brooks, (chap. xix. 7.) which prophecy was
delivered four hundred years at leaft before
the time that Varro places the Egyptian
invention ; by this one would imagine
that paper made ofthofe reeds was in ufe
when that prophecy was written;* for

why

* The learned Dr. Gill is of that opinion ; for in his
commentary upon the aforefaid verfe in Ifaiah, he fays,
" On the banks of the Nile grew a reed or rufh, called
by the Greeks papyrus and byblus% from whence come

the

[ 144- ]

why were they called paper-reeds, if not
applied for that purpofe? But little ftrefs
can be laid upon this pafTage, becaufe the
learned are not agreed about the meaning
of the original Hebrew word, which is there
tranflated paper-reeds. However, let it be
the papyrus, or let it be parchment, that
was firfl found out to write upon, it is
certain that the ufe of parchment has long
out-lafted that of the papyrus ; for books
made of this material are now great curio-
sities. Euflathius, in his comment upon
the twenty-firft book of Homer's Odyfley,
remarks that it was difufed in his time,
which is near fix hundred years ago.

The Paper manufactured in Egypt was
rather of an inferior quality, and the Roman*

prepared

the word paper, and bible or book, of which paper
was anciently made, even as early as the time of Ifaiah,
and fo many hundred years before the time of Alex-
ander the Great, to which time fome fix the «era of
making it.

t "S ]
prepared it more carefully, and paid more
attention to the warning, beating, glueing,
fizing, and fmoothing than the Egyptians.
They (ized it in a fimilar method as we
do rag-paper, but they made their ilze of
the fined flour, which was ftirred in boiling
water with a few drops of vinegar and fome
leaven, and then filtered. It was after the
firft fize beat with a hammer; fized the
fecond time, pre/Ted, and then fmoothed.
This Paper of the Romans was very white,
and according to Pliny, never more than
thirteen inches wide.

Pliny and Ifidorus have informed us that
the Romans had feveral forts of Paper, to
which they had given different names.
Pliny mentions eight of thefe.

1. Charta Hieratica, of which were four
different forts.

a. Charta Hieratica, This was a Paper
not cleaned at all.

b. Charta

[ 14* ]

b. Charta Augujla, (fo called to pay
refpect to the Emperor Auguftus) was
improved by one cleaning.

c* Charta JLiviana (named after the Em-
prefs) which was rendered fuperior by a
fecond cleaning.

d. Charta Hieratica. This name was
likewife given to Paper in full perfection.

The Romans named thefe four aifort-
ments in general Charta Hieratica, or Holy
Paper, becaufe it was principally ufed for
facred books and writings. All were eleven
inches wide.

»

The Charta Augufta had at firft the pre-
ference, but being too thin for the writing-
cane, in the fiftieth year after Chrift,
under the reign of the Emperor Claudius,
it was improved by lining the Auguftan

Paper

[ H7 ]

Paper with an underlaying of the fame
Paper, which gave the name to

i Charta Claudia. This Paper was
better than Charta Augufta, and two inches
wider. I muft obferve, that all books
preferved in Herculaneum are written on
Paper not underlaid; and that the firft
Paper was only written on one fide. The
Advafaria, of which Pliny the elder left
one hundred and fixty volumes, were the
only books preferved in which the leaves
were written on both fides; two leaves
being palled together. It is faid that
Julius Caefar was the firft who wrote opijio-
graphically, but only when he wrote
letters to confidential friends.

3. Charta Fannia. Palcemon, a cele-
brated grammarian, had in the year five,
feveral public work-fhops, in which this
Paper was prepared with more Ikill: it was
ufually ufed for writing plays upon. It

was

[ 1*8 ]

was ten inches wide, and glazed with a
tooth, ivory, or mufcle-ftiells.

4. Charta Amphitheatrica, which was
much coarfer than the before-mentioned
forts, and only nine inches wide.

5. Charta Saitica, which was only made
in the city of Said, Salo, or Sahid, from
the cuttings or fhavings, and refufe of other
Paper, which was gathered throughout the
country, and re-manufactured in this city:
it was not full nine inches wide.

6. Charta Tanitica, which obtained that
appellation from the city of Tanic, now
Damietta.

7. Charta Emporetica, or fhopkeeper's
Paper, which was ufed to wrap goods in,
was manufactured from the next pellicle
under the rind of the Papyrus, and fold by
weight: but, being only fix inches wide,

it

[ 149 ]
it was found to be inconvenient for covering
and packing of goods. It has been called
by fome Leneotka.

8. Charta Macrocolla, or only Macrocol-
lum. It received its name from its large
fize.

Several authors mention other forts:
Charta Libyana, which was in quality next
to the Qiarta Augujlce, Charta Thebaka,
Charta Carka, Charta Memphitka, Charta
Corneliana, after Cornelius Gallus, who was
the firft that had this paper manufactured.
Mellonis Pagina; Charta Blavca; it obtained
its name from its beautiful whitenefs : this
name is yet applied to a blank iheet of
Paper, which is only figned. Charta Nigra
was the name of Paper painted black, and
the letters written thereupon were of
white and other colours.

The Egyptian Paper was manufactured in

Alexandria

[ 150 ]

Alexandria and other Egyptian cities, iir
fuch large quantities, that Vopifcus fpeaks
of Fermies having boafted, that he poffefled
fo much Paper, that its value would main-
tain a large army for a long time. Alex-
andria was for a confiderable time folely in
poiTeffion of this manufacture, and acquired
immenfe riches, which Was much noticed,
by the Emperor Adrian ; and it is not
at all furprizing, that the gain which
the inhabitants of Egypt made from the
trade and consumption of this manufac-
ture, during the fpace of feverai hun-
dred years, was exceedingly great ; having
it all to themfelves, and furnifhing Eu-
rope and Afia therewith. At the end
of the third century the commerce of
Egyptian Paper was ftill flourifhing, and
continued to the fifth century, notwith-
standing it was charged with a very high
impoft, which induced King Theodoric, a
friend to juftice, after thefe impqfts were,
at the latter end of the fifth century, greatly

increafed,

[ 131 ]

increafed, to deliver Italy therefrom at the
commencement of the fixth century. Caf-
fiodorus wrote on that fubject a very re-
markable letter (the thirty-eighth letter in
his eleventh book) congratulating the whole
world on the ceflation of an impoft on an
article of commerce, fo neceflary for the
convenience and improvement of mankind ;
and fo highly oppreffive to the cultivation
and profperity of arts, fcience, and com-
merce.

It was ftill ufed occasionally in Italy
until the eleventh century, but not gene-
rally, by reafon of its laborious, difficult,
and expensive manufacture, and that the
ufe of Parchment and Paper made of cotton
became gradually introduced. Several au-
thors differ again in ftating the exact period
when the ufe of Egyptian Paper was dropt ;
but this difference may originate from mif-
taking the Paper made of Papyrus for that
of the bark of trees, which was even con-
t, tinned

[ Wfc ]

tinued to be ufed in the twelfth century,
and mall be*mentioned hereafter.

Some of that Paper is preferved to the
prefent time. It was already known in
France in the fifth and fixth centuries.
Mabillon quotes feveral a<5ts ftill exifting,
written on Paper manufactured from the
Papyrus, by the Kings Childebert the Firft
and Clodovic the younger; and Gregorius
Turonenfis affirms in his letters, that it was
generally ufed . at an . early period 'in the •
French Chancery. In the Abbey of St.
Germain des Prez, at Paris, was a complete
work written on Egyptian Paper. In the
Royal Library at Paris waft the Charta ple-
naria poteftatis, written on the fame Paper.
And Mabillon remarks that one of fuch
manufcripts, written in the fixth century,
was in the Library of Mr. Petau, which
Montfaucon could not get a fight of.

In the Cottonian Library are four leaves

of

t $• ]

of this Paper, on which the gofpels of St.
Matthew and St. John are written.

Italy can produce feveral explanations of
Pfalms, manufcripts of the Fathers of the
Church, Public Acts, &c. written on
Egyptian Paper: amongft them I mull:
notice a fcarce relick of the treafury of St.
Mark, at Venice, which is the gofpel of
St. Mark, written by himfelf, of which
fome leaves have been conveyed to Prague,
by the Emperor Charles IV. It is kept
with great veneration and care in a filver
cafe gilt, which is in the. form of a book,
and considered to be the moft precious
piece of the whole treafury, notwithftand-
ing no perfon is able to diftinguiih a (ingle
letter, being fo much injured by time, that
jt tumbled to ames when only touched. Za-
netti difcovered in the cabinet of Mr. Nani,
a diploma of Papyrus, a Venetian ell long,
and half an ell wide. And lately was found,
in the archives at Florence-, a document
L 2 . which

[ 15* ]

which is apparently written between the
years of 454 and 4/69, of fix feet by two;
many others are exifting in Italy, too nu-
merous to fpecify.

Amongft the feveral documents written
on Egyptian Paper, at Vienna, is a diploma
of Pope Benedict III, of twenty one feet by
two: and a document in Latin, which is
entirely preferved. The record of Ottokar,
King of Bohemia, is likewife written on
Egyptian Paper. In the Electoral Library
at Munich, is a manufcript on reed ; and in
the Library at St. Gall in Switzerland, is a
Codex of this Paper, on thirty leaves in
quarto, written in the feventh century,
with Uncial letters, containing the Homi-
lias St. Augujiini et Ifidori. In the Library
at Geneva are two manufcripts, according
to Mabillon and Montfaueon, of the fourth
and fifth century. I could quote many
more remains of Egyptian Paper, noticed
by Mabillon, Vacehieri, Gerkens, Lambe-

cius,

i 155 ]

cius, and other authors; and other manu-
scripts lately difcovered by fcientific
travellers; but, as it would extend this
account beyond my intended limits, I
fhall now turn to another Paper-material,
which is more ancient than the Paper of
Papyrus.

Charta Corticea, or Paper of the Bark of
Trees, manufactured of the membrana ligni
tenuioriy and likewife ufed for writing, is
difficult to be diftinguifhed from the
Egyptian lhrub-paper, called Charta papy*
racea ex pelliculis herba jEgyptiac<e, and
therefore often confidered to be the fame;
and feveral authors deny it ever to have
exifted. But if they had carefully ex-
amined thefe two forts, they would have
difcovered their error, and the difference.

The Charta Corticea has been, as afore-

faid, made of the fine Ikinny fubftance

feparated from the interior fide of the bark

U of

[ »35 J

of fuch trees as were fit for that purpofe^
which has been moft likely formed into
Paper by warning, beating, and plaining,
like the Paper of Papyrus. But it had
always three or four couches, which were
glued together, and was therefore through
its thicknefs not only more brittle, but the
united pellicles often feparated ; principally
the upper couch which was written on, and
the writing became, therefore indiftin6t
and ufelefs. The Codices of Charta Corticca
are for the major part written in Latin,
which gives us reafon'to fuppofe, that it
was ufed principally in the weftern coun-
tries., where the Egyptian Paper could
not be obtained, * or was very expenfive,
and the inhabitants were therefore obliged
to try to make their own paper. All an-
cient documents in Germany which are not
written on parchment are in general on
Paper made of filk, wool, and the bark of
trees; but thefe on Paper made from
Papyrus are fcarce, and a much experienced

eye

I 157 ]

eye is only able to diftinguifh one from
the other. In the Abbey of St. Germain
is a remnant of a manufcript, the upper
couch of which has difappeared with the
letters. In the archives of the church at
Gironne are preferved the bulls of the
Popes * Romanus and Formofus, of the
years 891 and 895. They are about fix
(eet long, and three feet wide, and are
apparently formed by gluing the (kins or
leaves couch wife one to the other; and
the writing remains legible in different
places. The learned men in France could
not agree, on the fubftances, of which
this paper had been made, and differed
in their opinions; fome take it to be
Egyptian paper, and others for paper made
of the inner fibres of the bark of trees,
and the laft opinion was fupported by the
majority, which induced the Abbot He-
raut de Belmont to write a treatife on
thofe differences of opinion ; and accord-
ing to the genealogic almanack at Berlin,
l 4 of

[ 158 ]

of the year 1788, many remnants of this
curious paper are yet preferved in feveral
convents. In the Imperial Library at
Vienna is likewife an original preferved,
which is a charte blanche, granted on
this kind of Paper. The ufe of this
Paper continued in France till the 12th
century.

That, in the molt ancient times, (kins
and hides* of animals have been ufed
as a writing material I have before
stated. In more modern times the fkin
between the hide and the fleih was fe-
parated, fcraped, and by working and
rubbing with quicklime, Were formed into
leaves, and called Membrana. Thefe were
ufed by the Hebrews and Greeks; and

the

Libro in corio, is not the particular name of books
written on animal (kins, but many times ufed for
books of bark of trees ; and, when Ulpianus fpeaks of
libris in corio, corium fignifies no animal /kin, but
the bark of fome other trees than the lime-tree, which
has been named coria*

[ 159 ]

the Jews maintain that their anceftors
ufed them for writing on the Mountain
of Sinai. It is certain that the jews had
at the time of David, books of the (kin
of animals rolled up called Mgilloth ; and
Herodotus afTures us, that in remote times
the lkins of fheep and goats were the
ufual writing materials about 440 years
before Chrift. That the ancients have
ufed lkins of different animals for that
purpofe is apparent, by the words, Mem-
brana caprina, agnina, ovilla, vitulina, el
hoedina, which are found in feveral au-
thors.

But fuch membranes are very different
from the true parchment, Charta Per-
gamena*

Ptolomseus the Firft,* King of Egypt,
who died in the year of Rome, 470,
eftablifhed in Alexandria, a very exten-
sive

* Sometimes named Sotcr and Lagus.

[ 160 ]

five library, which was much enlarged
by his fon Ptolomaeus Philadelphia, with
the affiftance * of his librarian . Demetrius
Phalereus. Eumenes, King of Pergamus,
as has been before ftated, contended with,
and endeavoured to furpafs him if pofii-
ble, which created jealoufy; and caufed
Ptolomasus to prohibit the exportation of
Egyptian Paper, under heavy penalties.
It may be that this prohibition was not
folely occafioned by jealoufy, but from the
fear that his dominions, which were fo
much improved in arts, fciences, and ci-
vilization, fincQ the difcovery of Paper,
would be' again reduced to a ftate of
ignorance for want of Paper, becaufe the
plant failed fometimcs in unfavourable
weather. The Pergamians were therefore
obliged to devife other means for making
Paper, and they difcovered the manu-
facture of ufeful parchment, about 300
years before Chrift, and in the fifth cen-
tury of Rome which obtained its name

« from

[ 161 ]
from the city of Pergam, or Pergamus,
in Alia (now Pergamo), the place where
it was invented, and the art of bringing
it to fuch a ftate of perfection, that ac-
cording to Prideaux and Freret, it greatly
furpaflfed the Egyptian Paper in finenefs,
fmoothnefs, and ftrength; and the art of
making it very thin arrived like wife in a.
fhort time to a furprizing degree of per-
fection. Rome manufactured the beft
parchment. The nrft inventor could only
manufacture yellow parchment ; yet in
Rome it was foon improved, and made
white : but as that delicate colour was
too liable to tarniih and fpot, it was only
made white on one fide, and the other
left yellow; and if it was to be ufed for
writing on both fides, it was coloured
violet and purple, and the letters were
written thereon in gold or filver. Gold
was only ufed for facred writings, and
principally for the Pfalms and Gofpels.

Jofephus

t 162 ]

Jofephus flates, that the High-Prieft
Eleazar fent to Ptolomaeus Philadelphus a
copy of the Holy Scriptures which was
to be tranflated into Greek by feventy-
two interpreters. The king greatly ad-
mired the beauty thereof and the fine
membranes, (jcnuitatam membranae) on
which it was written with golden letters.
But the tranilation has been made in Egypt
only 285 or 286 years before Chrift, by
the Synedrion, which confifted, like the
Hierofolymitanic, of feventy-two learned
men, who not only made the tranilation,
before it was laid for the King, and in-
troduced into the fynagogues, but revifed
it with fome alterations. It was only the
Pentateuch, or the five books of Mofes,
becaufe the other parts of the language of
the Jews at that time were not considered
as parts of their laws, and therefore lefs
neceffary for the Egyptian Jews; and it
is clearly proved by the latter part of
the book of Either, that it has been

tranflated

tranflated into Greek by another tranf-
lator.

All the world at that time did not
ufe folely Paper and Parchment for wri-
ting upon, but ftones and metals; the
laft were chiefly continued on account of
its durability, and all nations had not at-
tained a knowledge of the ufeful inven-
tions of the Egyptians and Pergamians.
Parchment came into ufe in Europe
not before the fixth century, which
increafed in the eighth and ninth; and
England and Germany made very little
ufe of Egyptian Paper for diplomas, but
parchment, till the year 1280. I am in-
formed that before the invention of Rag-
paper, nothing elfe was ufed in Germany
for diplomas than parchment; and, not-
withstanding, no map of parchment made
before the fixth century has been difco*
vered.

With

[ 1G4 ]

With refpecl to the fize, length, and
width of the parchment, it was not regu-
lated like the Egyptian Paper, and there
are documents as fmall as our playing-cards.
There was likewife no adopted rule, if
written at length or at the fides ; it depended
on every one's fancy : but as it commonly
was ufed only on one fide, it was more ge-
nerally written fidewife than lengthwife, to
fave fpace. When printing was invented,
parchment was likewife printed upon ; and
at Berlin, Brunfvvic, Paris, and St. Blaife, *
are copies of a bible, printed in the year
1450, on parchment, by Guttenbufg, in
three folio volumes. At the Univerfity
library at Helmftadt is the Officio, ticeronis :
and from the library of the late Mr. von
Duve was fold, by public auction, the very
fcarce work, printed on parchment, Chronica
Figurata totius mundi a Hartm. Sctiedelioy

Dott.

♦An Abbey of the BenedieYmes, in the Black Foreft,
in the Bifhopric of Conftance. The Abbot is a Prince
of the German Empire.

[ 165 ]

Doft. Norimb, of. Anton. Koberger, printed
in folio, 1493, with copper-plates.

Parchment mould be only made of calf-
fkins, to be entitled to its name ; but it is in
modern times likewife made of the (kins of
meep, goats, affes, and hogs. I mail not
enter into a description of the manufacture
of parchment, or repeat the various ways in
which it is ufed, new or old, but only ob-
ferve that in France there is annually the
value of upwards of a million of livres of
parchment manufactured.

Every one well knows that the ufe of
parchnjent is ftill continued in Europe,
not only becaufe it is more durable than
paper, but alio that it can be converted
into fize when old and ufelefs. But the
high price thereof prevents its general ufe ;
it would be therefore of great confequence
to the publick, if a fubftitute could be in-
vented, equally as durable as parchment.

Such

I 166 1

Such a difcovery would be highly beneficial,
as it would not only encreafe the writing
and printing material, but referve fuch . a
large quantity of animal fkins for the ufe of
feather, which becomes daily more fcarce.
In many libraries are manufcripts of calves-
parchment to be feen with painted pictures.
The art of painting on parchment was com-
mon before the art of painting with oil-
colours was difcovered. The miniature
paintings on parchment of Johannes de
Brugges, painter to King Charles the Fifth,
and thofe of Julio Clavio, which were paint-
ed in the year 1500 in the Virgiluis of the
Vatican merit to be noticed. And in the pa-
lace of the King of Naples has been preferved
a book with miniature paintings on parch •
went, by Macedo, Scholar of Michael
Angclo, Parchment takes all kind of co-
lours, but actually is only painted, red*
green, and blue; except by the Dutch who
dye it likewife yellow, and its principal

beauty

[ l61 1

beauty is, that it can be made not only
coloured but alfo tranfparent.

I mail now continue my hiftcrical ac-
count, and obferve, that it is erroneous to
flate that the Arabs invented, in the eighth
century, the manufa6ture of Paper from
cotton: and Cafiri, who dates it to have
been dif covered in the year 7 Off, by Jofeph
Amra, cannot deny that it was known
before that time by the Chinefe and Per-
sians. The Arabians are therefore not the
inventors, and acquired the knowledge of
making it only in 704, by their conquefts in
Tartary. This invention became then more
generally known, but the art of marmfajc*
turing it was only imported in the eleventh
century into Europe; and neither is the
year of its difcovery precifely known, nor
the inventor's name. The firft paper of that
kind was made of raw cotton;* but its

manufacture

* This muft have been unknown to Guetard, or be
would not have Hated that he was the firil who had

M afcertamcd

t !« ]

manufaclure was by the Arabians extended
to old worn-out cotton, and even to the
fmalleft pieces thereof.

But as there are cotton-plants of various
kinds, it is natural that thefe muft have
produced papers of different qualities ; and
it was impoffible to unite their woolly parti-
cles fo firmly as to form a ftrong fubftantial
Paper, for want of fufficient fkill ; and alfo
for want of European mills (which are hot
yet eftablifhed by the Moors, Arabs, and
Turks, who make ufe of mortars, and hand

and

afcertained by experiment,that raw cotton* wool could be
converted into Paper, without being previoufly ufed for
clothing or other purpofes. It feems he has been mif-
led by the Jefuit du Haide, who fays that the Chinefe
made their Paper from cotton-rags. Guetard alfo af-
ferts, that he was induced to make his experiments, be-
caufe he had not found an author who mentioned the
practicability of making Paper from cotton-wool ; and
"that by beating it to a pulp he has made fine white Paper
of it. But if he had read Tkeophilus Prejbyter and
Monackus, he would have been informed that in the
Eaitern countries it was cuHomary to make Paper •.
cotton-wool.

[ 169 ]

and horfe-mills*), it was impoffible they
could bring their wool, by that method, and
by boiling and beating, to a fine pulp, ren*
dered intirely free from its woolly quality.

Not

* Thofe who have travelled in Afia and Africa take
yery little notice of Paper manufactures and mills,
Niebuhr declares in the firft volume of his travels (page
150) pofitively, that he faw in Egypts neither water or
wind-mills, and that the publick corn®iill, worked by
oxen, at Kahira, was ufed not only for grinding com,
but likewife for prefling oil-cakes ; and that the com-
mon people grind their corn with very fimple hand-
mills. He gives of all thefe mills a defign and defcrip-
tion, which enables us to afcertain, that they cannot be
employed for making paper. The Arabs and Turks give
themfelves at prefent very little trouble for making
paper, being plentifully fupplied by the Italians and
French. There is neverthelefs near Conftantinople, on
a rivulet, a paper-mill, which is named in the Turkey
language Kehatjana, or Paper-manufa&ory, and makes
Cotton-paper. The Greeks ufe water-mills, and built
this mill; all the other mills in Conilantinople are
Horfe-mills, of which feveral hundred were burnt in
Auguft 1782. Du Halde in his travels in 1697 takes
no notice of Paper-mills in China, and mentions
only a Paper-manufa&ory at Ming-hya. And Navarette
ftates not in his travels, publilhed in folio at Madrid in
the year 1676, at Fon-gan in his road from To-chew to
Pekin, that he faw feveral paper-mills, as is er«oneoufly
tranflated : he fays only, that he faw feveral paper-
Hianufaftures, without naming them' paper-mills.

M 2

I 170 ]

Not difcovering in fuch ancient cotton*
paper, ftripes or water-marks, or the prints
of wire refembling thofe of our moulds, we
mull prefume that their forms were not
like our fkilfully invented moulds, through
which the water runs off, and the mafs
remains therein united.

The Chriftian difciples of Moorifh paper-
makers, who fince 1085, were in poffeflion
of Toledo, and in 1238, of Valencia, worked
the paper-mills to more advantage than their
predeceflbrs : inftead of manufacturing Pa-
per of cotton-wool (which is eafily recog-
nized by its being brittle and remaining
always yellow), they made it of cotton-
rags, in moulds through which the water
ran off: for this reafon it was called parch-
ment-cloth. Befide thefe denominations,
the hiftorians of that time call it Charta,
Xylina^ or Goffypina, from " the cotton-
plant; Charta Bombycina, from the fhrub
Bombax, by which name it was likewife

deicribed

f 171 ]

defcribed in England; Charta Cotonea;
Charta Damafcena; and Charta Serka.

All civilized nations ufed firft the Egyp-
tian and then the cotton-paper, but had
not any idea of ufing linen for the fame
purpofe; and to this day the Eaftern na-
tions who manufacture their own Paper,
and even the Greeks, employ only cotton-
wool and cloth for that ufe; and are fo
much accuftomed to ftrongly glazed Paper,
that when they receive Rag-paper from
Italy and the fouth of France, they glaze it
till it refembles our glofTy linen cloth.

It is probable that the Greeks made ufe
of cotton-paper fooner than the Latins.
And that it was brought into Europe by the
Greeks, at an earlier period than by the
Moors from Spain, there is no doubt. The
Greeks received it from the Tartarian coun-
tries at the Bukarias ; and through Venice
it came into Germany, where it was known
m 3 in

t 172 ]

in the 9th century by the name of Greek
parchment. . Greece, fo much connected*
by commerce with Aria and Egypt ; Italy,
which was already in the 7th century fre-
quented by the Arabs; Spain, which they
conquered in the 8th century, and pofieffed
to the latter end of the 15th; were, with-
out contradiction, the European countries
where cotton-paper was firft ufed. The
Arabs manufactured, at Cebta (which is,
according to Manjanfius, now Ceuta), a
cotton-paper, called Cebti ; and Spain being

fo

* The connexions of the Greeks with Italy and the
Oriental Empire, and their navigation on the Black-fea,
conveyed the knowledge of cotton-paper eafily to Eu-
rope, notwithftanding no document of this paper hat
been preferved from Greek antiquity, or noticed before
the time of the Emprefs Irene, wife of the Emperor
Alexius Coranenus, who at the latter part of the ele-
venth or at the commencement of the twelfth century,
made three copies of the rules for her nuns at Conftan-
tinople, two on parchment, and one on cotton-paper.
The Genoefe and Venetians, who eftablifhed themfelves
afterwards in the Crimea, and carried on commerce
with the Greeks and the countries on the Black-fea,
took care of the exportation of cotton-paper to the Eu«
pean countries.

[ 173 ]

fo near, could eafily have been provided
with i*> until manufactories were fhortly
after eftablifhed at Xativa, (or Sateba,)
Valencia, and Toledo?

The fluff for this paper, cotton, was mod
likely cultivated in Spain by the people
who had conquered it, becaufe they came
from a country where it was in general ufe,
and they were therefore accuftomed to it.
There is yet more than one quality of cotton
cultivated in Spain, and that commodity is
confidered in the Kingdom of Valencia as a
]wme production; and it is not unlikely
that the predeceflbrs of the Arabs, (the
Phoenicians and Carthaginians,) introduced
it into Spain. Swinburne calculates the
produce of cotton, the growth of Valencia,
at 450,000 arobes, value 350,000/. which
is in fome meafure confirmed by Twifs, who
faw, between Cordova and Granada, feveral
fields full of cotton-plants* in his travels
through Spain in 1772 and 1773.

M 4 The

[ "4 ]

The paper-manufactories at Xativa, Va*
lencia, and Toledo, produced only very
coarfe cotton-paper till the Moors were
driven from Spain, either by the Arabians
or Chriftians. The Spaniards being ac-
quainted with the ufe of water-mills, im-
proved the method of grinding the cotton-*
wool and rags; and by Itamping the latter
in the mill, they produced a better pulp
than from the wool, from which various forts
of Paper were manufactured, nearly equal
to thofe made of linen-rags.

Spain ftill poflefTes rehdues of cotton-
paper. At the convent of Silos, is a Latin
vocabulary, of intermixed parchment and
thick cotton-paper leaves, written in Gothic
characters, the date of which muft have
been prior to the reign of Alphonfus VI. as

the

* Dillon, in his Travels through Spain, mentions

cotton as a natural production, and it is furprifing that

Ulloa, a Spaniard, in his Retablrjfement des Manu-

JaELurts et du Commerce de FEfpagne, has omitted the

mentioning of cotton.

[ »« ]

the ufe of Gothic writing was forbidden in
1 \29 at the council at Leon. As very few
manufcripts are found on cotton-paper
from the 10th to the 12th century, but the
major part on parchment, or intermixed, it
muft be fuppofed that at that time cotton-
paper was fcarcer than parchment, or that
this mixture was necefifary becaufe fufficient
parchment could not be obtained, and that
the cotton-paper was too tender and more
liable to break.

The Arabian author, Scherif al Edrirli,
certifies that in 1 151 very fine white cotton-
paper was manufactured ; and Cacim Aben
Hegi allures us that the belt was made at
Xativa.

The King, Peter II. of Valencia (or the
fourth King of Arragon) iflued, in 1338, a
command to the paper-makers at Valencia
and Xativa, under pain of punifhment, to
manufacture better Paper, which was to be

equal

[ "• J

equal to that formerly made. Mr. Meerman
had in his poffeflion a piece of very coarfe
cotton-paper . written upon in 1339, which
proves that the art of paper-making was
neglected by the Spaniards; and that prior
to the middle of the 14-th century no linen-
rag Paper had been manufactured in that
country. This has been fully afcertained
by the above gentleman, from the repeated
examination of feveral pieces of Paper fent
to him for that purpofe. Notwith (landing,
their fcientific men perfift in its being linen-
paper.

Cotton-paper came into ufe in France
ihortly after its invention ; and until 1311*,
no other Paper than this and the Egyp-
tian Paper was known in that country.

At what period cotton-paper was intro-
duced into England cannot be afcertained
with accuracy. The moft ancient manu-
fcript which can be produced is of 1049;

and

f 177 J

*nd it appears that its ufe continued till
the latter end of the 14th century, and
that it has been gradually fijpplanted by
the linen-paper, which came into ufe in
1342. All documents written between
1282 and 1347, which Ducarell erroneoufly
ftates to be linen-paper, are written on cot-
ton-paper, as is the Carmina aurea Salomonis
Regis, in His cMajeftifs library, compofed
in the fourteenth century, in the Greek
ajid Latin languages; at leaft there is no
reafon to doubt what Mr. Meerman ftates
on this fubjecl:.

Of the introduction of cotton and linen
Paper into Scotland, nothing can be afcer-
tained ; and it is Angular that it has not
been noticed by Thomas Ruddiman. The
fame is the cafe with Ireland. But difco-
veries may yet be made in thefe countries.

The knowledge of cotton-paper came by
means of the Greeks to Italy; and the art

of

[ "8 ]

of making it, in Sicily, through the inva-
fion of the Saracens. It is certain there
was no Hnen-paper ufed before 1367.

The bulls of the Popes Sergius II. John
XIII. and Agapetus II. were written in
the eighth and ninth centuries, on cotton-
paper. Dufrefne quotes under the article
Charta Cuttunea, from Rocchi Pz/nhi Sicilia
Sacra, a place where the family of a paper-
maker is mentioned, but no time is noticed,
notwithstanding a full account is given of a
cotton-paper manufacture which we have
not of any other country.

The large paper-manufacture at Fabriano,
in the Marchia Anconitana (which, accor-
ding to Bartolus's defcription, confirmed of
feveral different mills belonging to different
perfons, although the whole formed only
one manufacture), was eftablifhed long ago,
but was enlarged from time to time, and
manufactured, at the period when Bartolus

wrote,

t 179 1

wrote, nothing but cotton-paper. This
author died in 1355 ; (o that it feems that
1367, or thereabouts, was the time when

4

linen-paper was brought into ufe in Italy :
and cotton might have been fome time
before mixed with linen-rags, till the fupe-
riority of the latter was fully afcertained.

As foon as the ufe of cotton-paper was
adopted in Italy, it was alfo introduced
into Germany; and, at the commencement
of the ninth century, well known under,
the name of Greek parchment. Germany
imported the paper fome time before it ma-
nufactured it; and not with (landing it re-
ceived the fluff through the fame channel
as the Paper, and that cotton and flax were
fpun and wove in the tenth century, the
manufacture of cotton paper cannot be
traced in Germany to fuch an early period:
all that can be pofitively afcertained is, that
in the middle of the fourteenth century, it
was made by damping-mills. But as Ger-
many

[ 180 ] •

many had in the thirteenth century, ak
ready cotton and linen manufactures, and
exported confiderable quantities thereof to
Italy, it is fair to prefume that cotton paper
was alfo manufactured.

Germany pofTefTes numerous well-known
relicks of cotton-paper, and amongft the
numerous manufcripts' preferved in the ar-
chives, convents, and libraries, there may
be ftill more ancient documents than any
which are yet come to our knowledge, and
which remain unknown for the want of a
precife examination. In the collegiate
church and cathedral at Ganderfheim is a
plenarium of the tenth century, which
amongft other rarities of that church boaft
of five documents and grants, given by the
founders of the convent, between 844 and
968, by the Duke Ludolphus of Saxony,
by his fon the Duke Otto, and by the Popes
Sergiusthe Second, Agapetus the Second,
and Johannes thcThirteenth. The Plena-
rium

t 181 ]

rium is likewife written on cotton-paper, in
the reign of the Emperor Henry the Second,
and attefted in 1007 with the imperial con-
firmation by his notary Apel Peranfa. A'
large manufcript of 1095 is at the Imperial
Library at Vienna. The Univerfity Library
at Erlangen has a collection of 420 manu-
fcripts on parchment, and 150 on cotton-
paper. In the convent at Weirgarten are
preferved numerous codices and manu-
fcripts of all centuries, and on every kind of
materials and paper. In the convent at
Rheinau are 490 manufcripts on different
kinds of paper. The library at the Vatican
contained 50,000 volumes, amongft which
there were 17,000 manufcripts. In the city
library at Augfburgh are numerous ma-
nufcripts, and many of them in Greek
more valuable than thofe at the Vatican,
The Library of the Convent at Tegernfee
contains 1500 manufcripts of the 8th, 9th,
10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th
centuries; and in the Abby of St. Blaife, are

fome

[ 182 ]

fome of the fifth century. The university
Library at Harlem, and the Library of the
Abby St. Emeran are rich in old ma-
nufcripts; and the chapter at Salzburgh
produces 58 Codices chartaceos, of cotton
Paper, amongft its collections.

I now conclude the hiftorical account of
the feveral fubftances which have been
ufed as writing materials, with the inven-
tion of linen Paper.

The Royal Society of Sciences, at Got-*
tingen, has, in the years 1755 and 1763,
offered premiums to trace the exact time of
this difcovery; and Mr. Meerman printed
in 1762 at Rotterdam, Gerardi Meerman*
Syndici Roterodamen/is, Admonitio de Charta
nqfiratis, feu linea, origine, and offered 25
ducats to find it out. All refearcheswere
loft and reduced to an uncertainty, through
the exifting remnantsjof cotton Paper, which
was as before dated in ufe fome centuries

before

[ 183 ]

before the linen Paper, becaufe thefe two
are in many refpects fimilar, and cotton
and linen rags may have been at firft mixed,
which rendered it therefore more difficult
to afcertain when the firft Paper was made
from linen rags alone.

The Jefuit Du Halde attributes this in-
Tention to the Chinefe; but as Gerbillon,
and other modern travellers allure us that
in the Paper-manufaclure at Ming-hya, raw
hemp was beaten and macerated with drugs,
and then manufactured into Paper, this
nation cannot exclufively claim the dis-
covery of the art of making Paper from
linen rags; and all authors agree that Europe
is entitled to the^merit of this invention, but
they differ as to the time ; * fome trace it to

the

* Hertius, who feeming'y had no knowledge of cotton-
paper, believes linen-paper was invented in the fixth
century.

Orlandi quotes a manufchpt of Homer in the
Library at Geneva, written on linen-paper before the
year 8co.

N Muratcii

C 18* j

the 8th, 10th, and others to the 11th and
12th century; and it is mod; likely that
Paper has been made from linen cloth before
it was attempted to be made from linen rags.

It is to be obferved, that the invention
of making paper from linen, has been pre-
ceded by the art of making paper of cotton-
rags, which mud be confidered as a prepa-
ratory ftep towards the life of linen-rags for
the fame purpofe. But as this required fome
time, and improvements of the firft, difco-
very, it is therefore more natural that tins in-
vention

Muratori believes that linen -paper has been firft
named Charta bombycina, and invented in the tenth
or eleventh century.

Harduin will make us believe, that he has feen a£ts
and diplomas written on linen-paper before the twelfth
century; and Cafiri fays; Non pauca in regia Efcuria-
lenfi Bibliotheca extant monumenta, quae ante tertium
dccimum Chrifli Jeculum Junt exarata.

But Montfaucon ftates the contrary, and infills that
he has not discovered, either in France or Italy, a book,
inftrument, or manufcript written on linen-paper pre-
vious to Ludovicusfanftus, who died Once 1270.

[ 185 ]

vention is to be afcribed, to a country, which
was more familiar with linen, and its agri-
culture, than with the application of cotton,

Gregorius Majanfius, of Oliva; Francifcus
Perez, of Toledo ; and Ferdinando Velafco,
of Madrid, endeavoured to trace this difco-
very in Spain, but could not prove that their
country was entitled to the merit of it,
being completely defeated by a number
of other authors; and it feems that the
Spaniards had no knowledge of linen Paper
before the middle of the fourteenth century,
and then it was not manufactured in that
country, but imported ; and it is moft like-
ly linen and lirten-rag Paper were only
manufactured in Spain a Ihort time before
the art of printing was introduced. Spain
cannot therefore claim the merit of this
invention; notwithftanding feveral places
in Spain produce very good flax ;* and even
n 2 foon

* Twifs relates that he found in the kingdom of Va-
lencia

[ ne ]

foon after that they manufactured Paper
from linen rags, thefe manufactories went

to'

lencia flax and hemp in abundance, where the commoncft
clafs of the people wore linen apparel. He obferves
alio that the fruitful plains of Granada produced like-
wife flax and hemp. The cultivation of .hemp and flax
is at prefent very conGderable ; in Valencia are an.
nually 25,000 cwt. of' hemp, and 30,000 cwt. of flax
cultivated. The exportation of hemp from Aragonia
was in 1775, 22,000 cwt. But it is certain, that Spain
confumes at leaft ten times more flax and hemp than it
cultivates, and even this was then not manufactured,
being in the habit of purchafing their linen, fails, and
cordage from France, England, Germany and the
Northern Countries. According to Pluce, there has
been imported in the year 1765 in Se villa, foreign
linen-cloth to the amount of 1,200, 000 dollars (270,000/.)
In the kingdom of Spain has been imported 24,000 cwt
of flax. Since the foundation and eftablifhment of the
Patriotic Society in Spain, the linen-manufacture is
more flourifhing, and the hemp and flax of their own
growth is not only manufactured, but alfo large quanti-
ties of imported. In Barcelona has been manufactured,
in 1783, linen cloth to the value of thirty millions of
reals. But as long as hemp, imported from Riga, with
the duty ^aid thereon, can be fold at a. lower price in
Spain, than its own growth, the cultivation will not be
cherilhed, and equa^the actual profperity of the linen
manufactories ; and notwithstanding the flax and hemp
plant is difperfed all over Europe, its cultivation is ftili
more proper for the Northern climate.

{ 187 ]

to decay, becaufe the Kings of Spain firft
granted monopolizing privileges to many
convents for the manufadture of Paper; and
when it came again into private hands,-
they fixed fuch a low price on printed
books, of which the Genoefe availed them-
f elves, and procured considerable quantities
of rags from Spain, principally from Anda-
lufia; and in 1720, they fent Paper back to
Spain to the amount of 500,000 piaftres.
There are at prefent upwards of 200 Paper-
mills in Spain, 31 of which are at Alcoi,
and Francifco Guarro manufactures Paper
as good as any Dutch.

Peris communicated to Majanfius fome
works of Ariftotle, tranflated" in the year of
the world 5010, from the Arabic, by Mo-
fes Semuel Bar Ichdua Ben Thibun at
Granada, which is in the year of Chrifl:
1250. The two different forts of paper, on
which was written in Hebrew** out the
Royal Library at the Efcurial, and fent by
n 3 Majanfius

[ "8 3

Majanfius to Meerman, have on examina*
tion been found to be white linen-paper;
they were written at the end of the reign
of Alphonfus the Tenth, and at the com-
mencement of the reign of his fon Sanclius,
between the years 1280 and 1290. But
notwithstanding it is decided by thofe An-
tiquarians, to be linen-paper, it differs (o
much in quality and colour from all other
paper manufactured in Spain, that it is more
probable that it has been copied in later
years on imported paper, and the date writ-
ten thereupon, is by no means a pofitive
proof of its antiquity. The moft ancient
linen -paper which can be with certainty

traced is of 1367; it is a piece of a ma-
nuscript of Francifci Eximii Vita K adlis
Chrijiiy and is intermixed with fheets of
parchment. It has fcizzars for a watermark,
which was one of the ufual watermarks in
Germany and Italy in the fifteenth century.

France made an early ufe of linen Paper,

but

f 189 ]

but manufactures were later eftablifhed
there than in Spain and Italy. Lint or flax,
was cultivated by the Gauls at an early
period ; but the clothing with linen became
only a cuftom many centuries afterwards;
and the authors of the eighth century quote
as a remarkable thing that the holy Segolena
was drefled in a linen fhift, and that the
Queen of France, wife of Charles the Se-
venth, was the firft French Queen who wore
ihifts of linen cloth ; which was in the fif-
teenth century. This is not a proof that no
Paper was made of linen before that time.
Several authors prove the ufe of linen Paper
in 1270, 1294, 1302, 1314, and 1316, but
not that it has been manufactured in France,
and we have no account for feveral centuries
what kind of linen Paper was made in that
country, which the authors would not have
left unnoticed ; and therefore no Paper ma-
nufacture can, be traced before the fifteenth
century. Thefe manufactures became in a
fhort time very flourifhing, and the French
N 4 foon

[ 190 ]
foon exceeded theif neighbours in the art
of making Paper, and were therefore ena-
bled to export confiderable quantities, which
encreafed fo much yearly, that in 1658, of
thirty-five millions of livres exported in
goods and merchandize to Holland, two
millions in value were of Paper ; and it pro-
vided Spain, England, Switzerland, Denmark,
Sweden, Ruilia, but chiefly Holland and
the Levant, with Paper for printing and
writing. The Paper manufactures in Lan-
guedoc, Lionefe, Guienne, Bretagne, and
Poitou work principally for exportation;
and the fourteen mills in Alface, which
manufacture about 40,000 reams of Paper
annually, export about two-thirds thereof
to Switzerland and Germany.

As the French ftill export a confiderable
quantity of Paper, I think it worthy of no-
tice, to ftate the names, length, width, and
weight of all the different forts of Paper,
now manufactured in France,

t 191 ]

Names.
GiandAigle . . •

Length
n. lin.

24 9

#i«kh.
$6 6

A Ream mould weigh

And at
leaft

1 3 1 lb. and upwards

1261b.

Grand Soleil . . .

24 10

36 0

ii2lb. notexc*i2olb.

105

Au Soleil - • • •

20 4

29 6

86 and upwards

80

Grand Fleur de Lis .

22^ 0

31 0

70 not exceeding 74

66

GrandColombicrou 7
Imperial . . J

21 3

31 9

88 and upwards

84

Al'Elephant . .' .

24 0

30 0

85 ditto

80

Chapelet . : . .

21 6

30 0

66 ditto

60

Petit Chapelet , .

20 3

29 0

60 ditto

55

Grand Atlas '. . .

24 6

26 6

70 ditto

65

Petit Atlas . . .. .

22 9

26 4

65 ditto

60

Grand Jefus ou Su- 1
per Royal . J

19 6

26 0

53 ditto

48

Grand Royal etranger

18 0

25 0

. 50 ditto

47

Petite Fleur de Lis

19 0

24 0

36 ditto •

33

Grand Lombard . .

20 0

24 6

36 not exceeding 40

32

Grand Royal . . •

17 10

22 8

32 and upwards

29

16 0

22 0

30 ditto

28

Petit Royal , . .

16 D

20 0

22 ditto

20

Grand Raifin . . .

17 O

22 8

29 ditto

25

Lombard , . .- .

18 0

21 4

24 ditto

22

Lombard ordinaire .

16 6

20 6

22 ditto

K20

Cavalier . . . .

16 2

19 6

16 .ditto

JS

Petit Cavalier . . .

15 2

17 6

15 ditto

14

Double Cloche . .

14 6

21 6

18 ditto

16

Grand Licorne a la ~|
Cloche '. . J

12 0

19 6

' 12 ditto

II

alaCloche . . .

10 9

14 6

9 ditto

8

Carre, ou Grand }

Compte, ou Sabre, >

IS 6

W °

18 ditto

16

Sabre au lion . *

„

Carre tres mince . .

H 6

20 0

13 ditto

13

A l'e'cu, ou moyen ^

Compte, Compte V

14 0

19 0

20 ditto

»s

ou Pomponne . )

a l'ecu tres mince- ;

14 2

19 0

ii ditto

11

AuCoutelas . . .

14' 2

19 c

17 ditto

16

[ 192 1

Karnes.

H

Grand Me/Tel .

Second Meffel .

a l'etoile, al'eperon
ou longuet

Grand Cornet . .
Grand Cornet tres 7
mince ... J
Champy, ou Baftard
a la Main . . . -
Couronne, 'ou Griffon

Couronne, ou Grif- 7
fon tres mince )

Telliere grand Format

Cadran . . .

La Telliere . .

Pantalon . . .

Petit Raifin, ou Ba-
ton Royal, ou Pe-
tit Cornet a la
grande forte

Les trois O ou ttois
ronds, ou Genes

Petit nom de Jefus

Aux armes d'Am-
fterdam Pro Patr
ou Libertas

Cartier grand For- 1
mat, Dauphine J
Cartier grand Format
Carder . ^ . .

Au Pot, ou Cartier!
ordinaire . . J

Pigeon, ou Romaine

Efpagnol •• . .

Le Lis . ' . . . ,

it a la Main, ou 7
Wain Fle^ie . J

Petit Jefus ....

}

na >

Length

in. lin

rc o

13 10
13 6
13 6

11 e

11 0

12 1

13 6

Width.

19

l7
18

A Ream fliould weigh

I?
17

16 1
20

«7

r7
17

r5
16

16
16

16
'5
'S «

16 (

1 5 and upwards
12 ditto

14 ditto

12 not exceeding 14

8 and lefs

12 and upwards

13 ditto
12 ditto

7 and lefs

12 and upwards

11

1 1 ditto

ditto
ditto

Petit

M

10
n
11

10

6'i6

9 or lefs

9 and upwards
7§ ditto

12 to 13

14 and upwards

13 ditto

14 6

St3

9 6

13

11
10
10
9
9
8

6

ditto
ditto

ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto
ditto

And at
leaft

14
II

x3

10

11

12
10

10
10

"I
10

H
7

12

IZ

12
IO

9

H

8
8
it

51

t 19S ]

All forts which are lefs than nine inches
and fix lines in length, are permitted to be
made of fuch a width as may be required.

That Paper called Trace, TreJJe, Etrejfe,
or Main<-brune, and of the names Brouillard,
and a la Demoifelle, and all coloured Papers
maybe manufactured of fuch length, width,
and weight as ordered.

There are three forts of French Paper
which are exported to the Levant, that are
not above defcribed:

• Inches. Inches*

Aux trois Croiflans, Facon de Venife, i2§ o long, 17 owide, 20'b. ooz.

Aux trois Croiflans, ou trois lunes, 120 160 14 10

Croifette 11 6 lines, 15 5 lines 9 4

The Papers called Couronne, Carrier, and
a la Cloche, if defigned for the Levant trade,
differ from the before-mentioned fize and
weight. In Savarys Dittionnaire Vniverfel
de Commerce are mentioned twenty different

forts

[ 194 j

forts of common Paper, made out of old
nets and cords, maculated and blotting
Paper, to which the French have likewife
given different names, but I have omitted
them, as they do not contribute to the
knowledge of the commerce with Paper,
nor to improve and extend our manufac-
tures, which was the motive I had for
giving here fo long a detail; whereas I have
endeavoured to abbreviate this hiftorical
account, in other refpects, as much as
poffible. I will now continue to defcribe
the remaining forts of Paper manufactured
in France,

Demoifelle mince is made of the finefl
threads of timing nets, and being more
flamped in the mill, lofes its natural colour,
and becomes of a cinnamon colour.

Demoifelle forte is lefs flamped, and of a
dark brown colour.

Jofeph

[ m ]

Jofeph Raifin, and Quarre Mufe, are
made of coarfer nets and cords, which are
not ftamped fine. - Thefe two forts are ufed
for packing up the linen cloth at St. Quen-
tin, Beauvois, and Troyes, becaufe their
dark brown colour fets off the whitenefs of
the cloth ; and it feems that the manufac-
turers put fome lamp-black in the engine,
to darken the colour.

The Paper, called Papier a Sacs, is made
of the coarfeft rags, and is fold by weight;
it is furprifingly brittle, and the manufac-
turers are therefore fufpected of mixing it
with fomething to encreafe the weight, or
it could not be fo tender.

At the latter end of the laft century the
art of making Paper arrived to a great de-
gree of perfection in England and Holland,
fo that the fale in France has not fmce been
fo extenfive, and many Paper-mills have
been fhut up, or converted to other

purpofes*

[ 196 ]

purpofes. There were, a century ago, in the
provinces of Perigord and Angoumois 400
Paper-mills, and now there are not one
hundred remaining. But the exportation
of Paper from France remains neverthelefs
very considerable ; and it (till manufactures,
after England and. Germany, . the largeft
quantity of Paper of any country in Europe.
It exports very large quantities of all forts,
chiefly that manufactured for Paper-hang-
ings, to the United Provinces of America,
for which reafon, on the 29th of Decem-
ber 1787, the exportation-duty on paper
ihipped for that country was not only
taken off, but alfo the excife returned. At
Montargis is the largeft paper-mill, erected
to work with 30 vats, which would confume
1, 620,0001b. of rags, and 135,0001b. of fize,
but want of water, and the quality thereof,
has prevented its working to its full extent.
At Vougeot, in Burgundy, is another large
mill, with 12 engines and 20 vats, ere&ed
by Mr. Defventes, of which Mr. De La-

lande

[ *W ]

lande has furnhhed the public with a com-
plete defcription, and the drawings of all
its parts and machineries.

The printing and writing-papers manufac-
tured in Auvergne are preferred to all other
French paper, except that manufactured
by Mathieu Johannot d'Annonay, which is
principally efteemed for printing copper-
plates. At Thiers are fifteen paper-mills,
which bring beautiful writing-paper to the
market; and at Ambert, where there are
50 paper-mills, and in Angoumois, princi-
pally printing-paper is manufactured, of a
very good quality, the mod part of which
is fold at Bourdeaux, and exported to Hol-
land : it is not fized, but much ftronger
prefled. In Limoges are 51 paper-mills,
which Work 66 vats. In Normandy, and
the environs of Rouen and Caen, are nume-
rous paper-mills. The valleys near Rouen
provides Paris principally with copy and
packing- paper. In the fmali compafs of

three

[ 198 ]

three leagues, near^ Rouen, are 34 paper-
mills ; and in a circle of 15 leagues, are

20 others. There were formerly many

*

more, forhe of which were converted in
1748 to. other purpofes, principally fulling-
mills. In the Franche-comte are 27 paper-
mills, which work with 30 vats, and are
fituated on the foot of rocks, where they
liave a conftant fupply of clear water;
they export their Paper principally to
Switzerland.

The paper-manufacture attained to perfec-
tion in France much fooner than in Holland
and England ; which, with the cheapnefs
of labour, gave them a certain fuperiority
in foreign markets, which has gradually di-
minifhed, and will remain fo, if no new
improvements and inventions contribute to
its rife. Mr* Robert Lewis in France two
years ago difcovered a way to make, with
one man, and without fire, by means of
machines, fheets of Paper of a very large

fize,

[ 1W ]

fize, even 12 feet wide, and 50 feet long,
He has obtained a patent *.

In France are ftill upwards of 500 Paper-
mills, which confume annually 20,000,000

weight

* This improvement in the art of making Paper will
cccafion a revolution in that manufacture, and if brought
to perfection, enable them to underfell in foreign mar-
kets, becaufe three men are now required for every
fheet of paper : if now one man is able to make as expe-
ditioufly flieets of fuch a large fize, where upwards of 300
meets may be cut out, it is of a very great advantage to
ths manufacturer, who will thereby be enabled to make
900 Oieeu of paper with the fame expence of labour, as
he is now obliged to pay for a fingle fheet; and moreover
he will be able to furnifh perfetl larger fheets of paper,
than any other heretofore made, and which is much
wifhed for, for drawing and feveral other purpofes.
Mr. Gamble, who arrived in London about twelve
months ago, brought over feveral fheets from Fiance,
and has obtained a Patent which will in fome refpefts
contribute to the introduction of this improvement irv
the art of making paper in this country ; others have
likewife for months paft employed agents in France, to
purchafe fuch machineries for ufe in this country, and
if brought to a greater perfection, there is no doubt, it
will be generally adopted and ufed in the Britifh Paper-
mills, and that their commerce will not be injured by
this difcovery in France,

O

t 200 ]

weight of rags and coarfe paper fluff. In
Franche-Comte it was afcertained by the
exchequer, that 16,000 cwt. of rags were
collected within one year, of which 8,000
were manufactured in that county, and
fc,000 exported to other counties : asFranche-
Comteisonly about one twentieth part of
France, 320,000 cwt. of rags muft be annu-
ally collected in that country, and upwards
of one-third, or 14,000,000 weight are ftill
exported, notwithstanding the fevere pro-
hibition.

In Switzerland, efpecially in the princi-
pality of Neufchatel (which belongs to the
King of Pruffia) and in the Cantons of Bern
and Bafil feveral Paper-mills are now efla-
blrfhed, which manufacture very good Pa-
per, admired for its ftrength and whitenefs,
which diminifhes the importation from
France, and the manufactures at Pon-
tartier. The paper-mill of Mr. Blume, in
the canton of Bafil, has gained a fuperiority

in

t 201 ]

In that country, and produces copper- plate
paper equal to any manufactured in France.

The time when linen Paper came into
ufe in Italy remains likewife uncertain;
and as all that has come to the knowledge
of the prefent time, cannot be fatisfactorily
afcertained, I will therefore quote only
what may be regarded as authentic. The
fenate of Venice granted, the 19th of Augufl
1366, an exclufive privilege' to the Paper-
mill at Trevifo, that no linen Paper- fhavings
or offal mould be exported from Venice
than for the ufe of that mill ; if now fha-
vings from linen Paper exifted, it proves
the manufacture of that Paper muft have
been eftablimed fome time before; a docu-
ment of a notary, in 1 367, proves likewife
the ufe of linen Paper; Maffei ftates, that
he is in poffeflion of a family manuscript of
linen Paper, written in 1367, and he at-
tempts therefore to appropriate the inven-
tion of linen Paper to Italy, notwithstanding
o 2 it

[ 202 ]

It appears more likely, that by the manu-
factures of cotton paper, the linen paper
has not been manufactured in Italy at fuch
an early period. In 1374 the patent of the
manufacture at Trevifo, which proved fuc-
cefsful, was renewed by the fenate of Ve-
nice. An extenfive commerce in Paper
was carried on at Venice for exportation.
The city of Gorlitz received, from 1376
to 1426, all its Paper from that country.

Angelus Roccha mentions a Paper manu-
facture at Foligni, exifting in the 16th cen-

4

tury ; and he fays, that at Fabriano was mar
nufactured the belt large Paper; and at Fo-
ligni, the beft Paper of a fmall fize. The
Paper-mills at Fabriano are yet in efteem, and
there are the greater!: number in Italy. In
the Pope's territory at Tivoli, Viterbo, Ron-
ciglione, Bracciano, and Rome, are many
Paper-mills, but they do not make fo much
Paper as they might, from the quantity of
rags gathered in that country ; and Schlozer

dates,

[ 203 ]

ftates, that one million in weight is annually
exported to Genoa. The value is entered
at 100,000 fcudi, or crowns.

Venice exports large quantities of Paper
to the Levant,* and inferior affortments
to the Auftrian dominions: at Colli, in

Tufcany,

* The commerce of Paper to Turkey is principally
carried on at Venice : the aflbitments are white, thick,
and very clofe : the Turks cannot make ufe of any
weaker Paper, becaufe thfey ufe a reed for writing, which
is cut into the form of a pen. Thofe called jioretto
and the three moons are in the greatefl requeft, being
very ftrong and very heavy. The Jioretto is the moft
fafliionable kind of Paper, and the deareft. The Turks
gum it, and brighten it with a polifliing-inftrument.

Next to Venice, Genoa is the place in Italy which
exports the greateft quantity of Paper to the Levant.
The Genoefe Papers are much lighter and- not fo dear
as thofe of Venice : they are made ufe of in winter in-
flead of wihdow-glafs, for ceconomy.

Upon the whole, Italy fends Paper into Greece to
the amount of 2,5,000/. and into Turkey to the amount
of 250,000/. which ought to be noticed by our mer*
fhants and Paper -manufaclurers , and engage them in
a competition with the Italians in this important branch
of the Levant trade, principally as Marfeille has been,
of late years, the only place in France that can circulate
any of its Papers in Turkey.

O3

[ 204 ]

Tufcany, is a mill which manufactures very
good Paper. In the environs of Turin are
feveral mills which furnim fine Paper; one
Paper-maker in Venice is in poiTeflion of
the fecret of covering his Paper with a var-
ni/h, by which means the writings can be
eafily obliterated with a fponge, and he
has found an extenfive fale for this Paper.
The Genoefe had fome time ago monopo-
lized the Paper-trade of Italy, by manu-
facturing it of a fuperior quality and white-
nefs, and by ufing a particular fize, which
it is faid prevented its deftruction by moths;
but this commerce is now greatly reduced.

Germany difputes with Italy the moll
ancient knowledge of cotton and linen Pa-
per. There were already in the 1 3th cen-
tury cotton and linen manufactories
eftablifhed, which exported large quanti-
ties of goods to Italy and to the Levant ;
and it cannot therefore be furprifing
that the art of inventing linen-rag Paper

is

[ 205 3

is judged to belong to Germany: but
nothing has been afcertained with cer-
tainty. The feveral ancient manufcripts
and pieces of linen Paper preferved in Ger-
many do not positively afcertain that the
firft manufacture was eftabliflied in that
country. There have been always quoted
two diplomas, to prove the age of the ufe
of linen Paper in Germany; the one is of
Count Adolphus the Fourth, of Schaum-
burgh, who therein confers in 1239 on Rinr
teln the right and privileges of a city, and
which has been made known to antiquarians
by Profeffor vonPeftelat Leiden; the other
is of the year 1303, which Profeflbr Popo?
witfch at Vienna declares to have feen in
the archives of the city of Windifchgraetz
in 1740. Both diplomas would be miflead*
ing others, if accepted as proofs of the anr
tiquity of linen Paper in Germany; that
at Windifchgraetz is only quoted by me-
mory, and the other of Rinteln is ftill more
o 4 fufpicious,

[ 20(5 ]

fufpicious, and wants the day and month
when executed, which is found in all other
diplomas given by the faid Count Adolphus,
and according to Spangenberg and Bierling,
Rinteln did not receive the right and privi-
leges of a city till the year 1340, which is
101 years later. But one piece of Paper,
of 1308, which Mr. von Senkenberg fent,
in 1763, to Mr. Meerman, merits particu-
lar attention ; it was ftrong, white, pliable,
and had the marks of the wire-moulds,
which are the tokens of linen Paper; it was
neverthelefs glazed, and much refembled
parchment, which are tokens of cotton
Paper. The Royal Society of Sciences at
Gottingen judged therefore, if the date could
be taken as certain, that the epocha could
alio be taken for the true time when linen
Paper was invented, notwith (landing Pro-
feffor Murray believes it to be mixed Paper,
of linen and cotton, manufactured at
fabriano. If it ihould be linen Paper

manu-

f 207 ]

manufactured in Germany,, it mull have
been, according to their opinion, on the
frontiers of Italy.

Von Stetten is of opinion that linen
Paper was manufactured at Augfburgh ear-
lier than in any other part of Germany.
That city was the firft which .eftablifhed
confiderable linen-manufactories, and carried
on in ancient times an extenfive commerce
in linen. Neverthelefs, the eftablilhment
of mills cannot be ascertained, nor the pre-
cife time when the firft paper-mill was
built on the Sinkel-ftream. Longolius at
Hoff endeavours to eftablifh it as a fact, that
linen Paper has been made at Augfburgh at
the commencement of the fourteenth cen-
tury, by a diploma in the archives of the
Prince of Onolzback, by the Bifhop Frede-
rick of Augfburgh, which is without date,
and it ftates that the faid bifhop was of the
hotrfe of Speet von Thurnegg, who reigned
between the years 1307 and 1330, that the

Paper

[ 208 3

Paper muft therefore have been manufac-
tured within or before that period. This di-
ploma is, on the ftricteft examination, declared
to be Paper made from linen ; but Meer-
man ftill retains his doubts, becaufe another
Bifhop of the name of Frederick reigned in
Augfburgh in 1414, and that there are
yet exifting in Augfburgh publick accounts
up to the year 1330 all on cotton Paper,
in which repeatedly expenfes are brought
in pro papyro, without mentioning if for
linen or cotton Paper.

That Pomerania had an early knowledge
of Paper, has been fatisfactorily proved by
John Samuel Heringen, Profeflbr at Stettin.
He quotes a long lift of fignatures of the
notaries to certify numerous diplomas from
the Dukes of Pomerania, between the years
1263 and 1373. But we cannot take him
for a fuffieient judge of linen and cotton
Paper, and therefore not decifive in opinion.
A. copy of a document of 1289, written in

1315

f 209 ]

1315 in monkim characters, containing a
donation from Bifhop Hermanzus to the,
convent of nuns at Coflin, has the water-
mark of a bull's head with a crofs on the
top of a pike, raifed between the horns;
and Heringen believes, that this water-
mark is an undeniable proof, that this Paper
Was made in Pomerania, in the diocefe of
the Bifhop of Camin, and that the fign of
the bull's head mud be the arms of the
family von Wachold, and that the crofs is
the fign of the bifhop. But this opinion
muft be erroneous, even if we admit the
water-mark to be a proof in what country
the Paper has been made. The bull's head
is the arms of Mecklenburgh, and the
German princes are jealous of permitting
their arms to be ufed by any branch of
the nobility, not belonging to their own
houfe. The water- mark, in the firft inven-
tion of linen-paper, may have fignified in
what parts the Paper has been made, but
has been fmce ufed to diftinguifh the quality

of

[ 210 ]

of the Paper, or in which mill it was
manufactured. .

The water-mark of a bull's head in the
Paper, which is not in any Italian Paper,
and which fcientifie men take as an unde-
niable token of books printed in the firft
printing-office of Fault, is only the firft
water-mark made in the molt ancient Ger-
man linen Paper, and is found in all ancient
German manufcripts, and the firft printed
books, with fome alterations and additions:
the firft manufactured Paper of Germany is
of the year 1312, with the water-mark of
a plain bull's head, which may have been
fince adopted by Paper-makers of other
countries, as it is ftill in practice with many
forts of Paper that are in great demand ; for
example, the words Pro Patria, which are
water-marks in Paper like our foolfeap,
originated in Holland, but it is like wife
made ufe of in French and German mills;
and if the fign of a bull's or bullock's head,

which

[ 211 ]

which are truly the arms of Mecklenburgh,
is to be taken as a proof that the firft Paper
was made in that country which ufes thefe
arms, then is Mecklenburgh entitled to the
honour of this difcovery. This is fupported
by the fituation of Mecklenburgh being
on the frontiers of Pomerania.

In the archives at Wolgafl: is a document
on linen Paper of 1393. In that of the
hofpital at Kaufbeuren are two of 1318,
and in the archives of the city feveral others
of 1 3 24, 1 3 26, and 1 3 3 3 . Von Murr found
in Nuremberg linen Paper of 1319. The
moft ancient linen Paper preferved in the
Netherlands, is the copy of a Bible in
verfe, by Jacob Maerlant, in the library
of Ifaac le Long, which Meerman faw
and examined, when the library was fold
by publick auction at Amfterdam, in 1744.
A manufcript in Dutch, " Het boek der
Bytrt" of 1330 written on linen Paper, is in
the library of Hulfian. At Hohenloe is a

document

t 212 ]

document written in 1333, on the Friday
after the Afcenfion. In the convent at
Quedlinburgh is a bill of feoffment, granted
by the Emperor Charles the Fourth, to the
Abbefs Efmingarde in 1 339. Bohuflaus Bal-
binus afferts that in the archives at Prague
are preferred feveral diplomas written before
1340, which have induced many to believe
that the firfl: linen Paper was made in Bohe-
mia. In the library of the Minfter at Fulda,
are preferved with the manufcripts and
letters of celebrated men, fome Decreta
Judicialia of the ancient abbots from 1341
to 1491, all written on linen Paper and
with feals. John Daniel Fladd in Heidelf-
berg difcovered feveral documents written
on linen Paper in the fourteenth century,
the mod ancient of which was in 1 342. The
Royal Society of Sciences at Gottingen ad-
judged to him a prize-medal of 25 ducats,
for the difcovery of the moft ancient linen
Paper. Helmftadt has exhibited a docu-
ment of 1343; it is a little deed of an

acre

[ 213 ]

acre of land, which a prieft of Helmftadt
purchafed, and On which are two feals;
and as he was in fear for the lading of his
document, the Paper being fo thin, he ap-
plied to the magiftrate for a duplicate on
parchment, which is only two years younger.
In the archives at PlaiTenburgh is a record
with afeal, dated 1347 ; and at Magdeburgh
are feveral of 1350. Qualenbrinck at
Utrecht difcovered, in the bailiwick of
Utrecht, three documents of the Teutonic
order, two of 1353, and one of 1369. Fladd
difcovered another document on linen Paper
of 1377, on the back of which is a wax
feal; the Paper is rough, and the water-
marks very plain. Gatterer at Gottingen
found in the family archives of Holzfchuher
*t Nuremberg a linen Paper document,
with the feal on wax of Frederic Holzfchu-
her, Knight of the Teutonic Order. The
library of Paulin at Leipzig poflefles a manu-
script of the poet Hugo Trimberg, written
in 1391.

It

[ 214 ]

It feems, by the numerous relics of an-
cient linen Paper in Germany, that it came
into life there at the beginning of the 14th
century, and Ulman Stromer of Nurem-
berg, who died in 1407, began in 1360 to
write the firft work ever publifhed on the
art of Paper-making, and eflabliihed a
large Paper-mill in 1390. He employed a
great number of perfons, amongft whom
were three Italians, Francifcus, Marcus de
Marchia, and Bartholomaeus ; all of them
wrere obliged to make bath not to teach
any perfon the art of Paper-making, or
to make Paper for their* own account. He
employed another perfon of the name of
George Thirman, who bound himfelf only
for ten years. In the firft year he employed
two rollers, which fet eighteen Hampers in
motion ; but when he would in the fecond
year add another roller, he was oppofed by
the Italians whom he employed, who would
not confent to the enlarging of his manu-
facture ; but they were imprifoned by the

magistrates,

C 215 ]

magiftrates, and then they fubmitted by
renewing their oaths.

All the Paper-mills erected, fince the art
of printing has been invented by Kofter, of
Haaerlem, in 1430, cannot be brought
forward as a teftimony to prove the inven-
tion of linen Paper-making in Germany;
but, after the noble invention of printing
(by which ideas can be fo eafily conveyed
and difperfed) came in practice, the rapid
extension and the multiplication of printing
made the increafe of Paper-mills neceffary.
In the environs of the Rhine, in Swabia,
Franconia, Alfatia, Mifnia, and Bohemia,
are the greateft number of Paper-mills. In
the Hanoverian dominions are 34, and
Beyer ftates that there are in Germany 500
Paper-mills* (thofe in Auftria and Pruflla
not included), which manufacture at leaft

2,500,000

* 1 fubjoin here an account of fome Paper-mills in
Germany, as far as I could obtain knowledge thereof.

P x. In

t 216 ]

2,500,000 reams of Paper. According to

Count

i. In the Circle of Upper Saxony, in the Chur-Mark . 4

Chur-Saxony 89

Swedifti-Pomerania 2

s* In the Circle of Lower Saxony, in the Hanoverian

Dominions . . . * 34

Mecklenburgh . . . . ; 6

Near Hamburgh 2

3. In the Circle of Weftphalia, in the Principality of

Minden , . . r

County of Lippe ........... 6

Abbey of Werden 5

County of Tecklenburg and Linden . i . . . 3
In the Circle of the Upper Rhine, in the County of

Ifenburg 2

Catzenellenbogen a

Hanau-Munzenberg • . • . x

$. In the Circle of Franconia, in the County of Henneberg 3

6. In the Circle of Suabia, near Augfburg 4

Ulm r

7. In the Circle of Bavaria, near Regenfburg . . . . t

8. In Bohemia 8r

9. In Silefia, in the Environs of Hirfchberg .... 4

Sagan .'...2

Wartenberg %

Schweldnitz :..-.. 12

Which amount to 256

It is therefore apparent that there mull be more than
{00 Paper.mills in Germany.

Large

[ 217 ]

Count Ewald von Hertzberg, there were, in
1785, in the Pruflian dominions 800 Paper-
manufactures, the revenue thereof produced
200,000 dollars annually.

Large fums of money go notwithftanding
from Germany to foreign countries, for the
purchafe of Paper, becaufe the Paper-
makers make in general coarfe Paper chiefly
for printing, and the finer forts and writing-
paper are imported. In the port of Ham-
burgh were imported, in 1782, 7,439 bales
(of 10 reams and upwards,) 4,3 3tf reams,
four cafks, and three chefts, with Paper.
That city has no more than two Paper-mills,
of two vats each, which confume 6,000 cwt.

of

Large quantities of Paper-materials are loft in Ger-
many, becaufe tbe coffins in which they lay the deceafed
are filled in the moft part of Germany with Paper*
fhavings ; the bodies are likewife clothed with a linen
fhift or fhirt, and are laid on a linen fheet.

Confifcated books are burnt in Germany ♦

P 2

I 218 ]

of rags, an<J make principally dark purple
paper for the fugar-bakers The annual in-
crease of printing prefles, and the want of
rags and Paper-fluff, has engaged the Paper-
makers to make many more reams of Paper
from one cwt. of rags than formerly, which
renders the prefent German printing-paper
very difagreeable to the printers and readers.

There are in the kingdom of Sweden no
more than 24 Paper-mills. In Stockholm
alone were imported, in 1781, 18,579 reams
of Paper: 8,142 reams for writing, 5,7 8 ff
reams for printing, and 4,651 reams of
packing-paper, and coarfer forts.

When the Czar, Peter Alexiewitz, vifited
Drefden, in the year 1712, he faw the
Paper-mill belonging to $Ir. Schuchart,
and made a few meets of Paper with his
own hands; he was fo pleafed with an
art which furprifes every perfon who
vifits a Paper-mill for the firft time, that

he

[ 219 ]

he immediately engaged Paper-makers,
whom he fent to Mofcovv, to eftablim Pa-
per-mills at his own expenfe : and Mr.
Pfeiffer, a German, erected, with the af-
fiftance of a carpenter from Commothau, a
very fine Paper-manufactory; to which the
faid Emperor granted great privileges. At
Jaroflow is now a Paper-mill, with 28 en-
gines and 70 vats, which manufactures
weekly 1,100 reams of Paper, and confumes
annually 800 tons of rags ; and another
which works 13 vats by 13 engines: they
chiefly make Paper for Paper-hangings,
which they fell at Mofcow. There are 23
Paper-mills in the Ruffian empire, and,
notwithstanding they are not in want of
rags (the exportation of which is prohi-^
bited), they import annually Paper to the
amount of 220,000 rubles. *

In

* The duty to be paid on imported Paper is as follows;

for writing-paper, from 2 to 5 rubles per ream ; coloured

JPaper from 2 to 4 rubles; blotting-paper, 3 rubles; all

P 3 Paper

[ 220 ]

In the government of Kaluga are feveral
Paper-mills; and, according to Wafilii
Szujew, all offal from preparing and
weaving hemp and flax, with the fpoilt
yarn in the linen and fail-cloth manufacto-
ries, are delivered to the Paper-mills.

At the commencement of the prefent
century there were very few Paper-mills in
Holland, and the Dutch imported great
quantities of Paper till 1723 from St.
Malo, Nantz, Rochelle, and Bordeaux ;
but, iince that time, they have erected
numerous mills, and carried on an extenfive
commerce, which has fuffered greatly fince
that country has been governed by the
French Republic. In the province of

Holland

Paper ufed for making cards, 3 rubles; royal, 1 ruble
60 copecs, to 2 rubles ; ploughed letter-paper, in
quarto, 1 ruble 35 copecs; and if with gilt edges,
1 ruble 80 copecs ; printing-paper, 75 copecs ; paste-
boards for the ufe of manufactures, 60 copecs for a
hundred.

[ 221 3

Holland were, in 1770, eleven large and
considerable Paper-mills. In Gelderland
are a great many, but fome fo fmall that
they are only able to make 400 reams of
Paper annually : and there are alfo water-
mills with Hampers, like thofe in Germany.
But in the province of Holland there are
wind-mills, with cutting and grinding en-
gines, which do more in two hours than the
others in twelve. In Saardam, a thoufand
perfons are employed in Paper-making.
Holland produces not one tenth of the
quantity of rags ufed in that country for
Paper-manufacluring, which are fmuggled
in from France, and imported from Ger-
many, Italy, and Portugal ; the latter of
which are of the coarfeft kind. The Dutch
are chiefly jealous with refpecl: to this ma-
nufacture, and the exportation of moulds is
prohibited under pain of death. They
export large quantities of Paper, principally
dark purple, to Hamburgh. From 20 to
30,000 reams are annually exported to
p 4 Sweden;

[ 222 ]

Sweden ; and the exportation to France,
England, Denmark, and Ruflia, is not in-
confiderable, becaufe they manufacture
fome forts fuperior to thofe manufactured
in other countries.

I conclude by obferving, that they
chiefly manufacture writing-paper, and
Paper of a dark purple colour, for packing
fugar-loaves. For their own printing-
prefles, they purchafe Paper from France
and Germany.

We are obliged to Mr. Meerman's in-
defatigable perfeverance for knowing that
in 1308 linen Paper was ufed: the dif-
covery of this invention may have been
made fome years fooner, but the precife
period cannot be positively afcertained;
nor in what country this invention ori-
ginated.

In Italy is preferved linen Paper, of

1367,

[ 223 ]

1367, and in Spain, of the fame year;
in England, of 1342; in France, of 1314;
and in Germany, of 1308 ; it is therefore
likely, that Germany has the honour of its
invention.

Ducarell dates in his letter to Mr. Meer-
man, that, in England, many documents
from the year 1282 to 1347 are preferved;
but he acknowledges that it is impofrlble to
afcertain, whether thefe manufcripts are
written on Paper made from linen, without
any mixture of cotton. Prideaux quotes a
regifter of acts from John Cranden, of the
14th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
written on linen Paper in 1320 ; but it has
been determined, that, in many inftances,
he had not a competent judgment to afcer-
tain the true quality. Mr. Aftle, who
wanted neither knowledge, nor the oppor-
tunity of making more effectual inquiries,
is filent as to the time when the linen Paper
came into ufe in England; all that he

remarks

[ 224 ]

remarks is merely a repetition of what Pri-
deaux has ftated. There is in the library at
Canterbury, according to the Philosophical
Tranfaclions of the year 1703 (No. 288,
page 515), an inventory written on linen
Paper, fpecifying the inheritance of Henry,
who was prior of Chrift-Church, and died in
1340. Dr. Wendeborn ftates, that, in the
Britifh Mufeum, there are pieces of linen
Paper from the Cottonian library, written
in the reign of Edward III. in 1342; and
he believes that if the manuscripts which it
pofTefTes were carefully examined, there
might be found others of a more ancient
.date.

As nothing farther has yet been ascer-
tained, or come to public knowledge, we
muft take thefe manufcripts of 1342 for
the oldeft proof of the period when linen
Paper came into ufe in England.

The art of manufacturing Paper from

linen

[ 225 ]

linen and linen-rags was only eftablifhed in
England in the latter part of the 16th cen-
tury. All Paper ufed before that time was
imported from Holland and France, and ftie
paid, fo lately as the year 1663, 100,000/.
to the latter country, for imported Paper.
A German, of the name of Spielman, had
the happinefs, under the reign of Queen
Elizabeth in 1588, to erect at Dartford, in
Kent, the firft Paper-mill ; for which he
received from her Majefty the honour of
Knighthood.

It is recorded in the Craftfman, No. 910,
that King William III. granted the Hugue-
nots from France, refuged in England,
(Bifcoc and others,) a patent for eftablifh-
ing Paper-manufactories; and parliament
granted to them other privileges : but, from
a want of unrelaxed perfeverance, ceconomy,
and induftry, their undertaking met with
the fate that often attends new efta-
bliihments : it went to ruin, notwithfland-

ing

[ 226 ]

ing its fuccefs in the firft few years ; and
the manufacture of Paper in general de-
cayed, until the year 1713, when Thomas
"Watkin, a ftationer in London, brought it
in a fhort time into great repute and per-
fection ; and it is a merit attributable to
him, that the prefervation of this important,
moll ufeful, and neceflary of all arts has
given rife to the eftablifhment of the
numerous Paper-mills that England now
pofTefTes, which manufacture very large
quantities of Paper of all forts in the
greateft perfection : not only a great part of
which is exported to foreign countries, but
the importation of this commodity is now
confined to a few affbrtments only, of which
there cannot be a doubt, that thefe kinds of
Paper yet imported, will foon be manufac-
tured in this country of an equal quality,
becaufe, by perfeverance, convenience in
the conduction of thefe manufactures,
fuperior engines, prefles and machines,
and improved moulds, the indaftrious

manu-

[ 227 ]

manufacturers have been aififted and ena-
bled to give to Englifh Paper its actual pre-
eminence.

Ireland has, during many years, offered
and paid premiums to encourage thofe
concerned in Paper- making, for the manu-
facture of the beft and the larger! quantities
of Paper ; but notwithstanding fuch incite-
ment, and that provifions and labour are
there cheaper than in England, it is under
the neceflity of importing considerable
quantities from hence, and paying a higher
price than for their home-manufactured
Paper.

Scotland manufactures good printing-
paper, which greatly furpaffes that of the
Germans in whitenefs and ftrength. —
Meflrs. Foulis, printers at Glafgow, are
faid to export annually on an average
two millions of copies of books, and it
muft be prefumed that they are partly in-
debted

[ 228 ]

debted to the fuperiority of the Scotch
Paper, to that of Germany and the
Northern countries, for the pre-eminence
to which their printing-houfe has been
raifed.

England, which does not furnifh fuch
considerable quantities of rags as might
have been expected from the number of
its inhabitants, and their fuperior cleanli-
nefs in linen, notwithstanding, confumes
at prefent, in its extenfive and numerous
Paper-mills, as many rags as any other
country in Europe, Germany and France
excepted. The revenue arifing from
the excife-duty on Paper amounted, in
1799, to 140,000/. If we now calculate
that fix-fifteenth parts of the whole
quantity of Paper made in England
is writing and printing Paper, which pays
2itf. per pound excife-duty;* that five-
fifteenths

* Since the above was written, the duty on Paper
has been doubled, and commenced in April x8oi.

[ 229 ]

fifteenths are of the fecond clafs of Paper,
paying 1 d. per pound ; and that, of the
remaining four- fifteenth parts, one-half pays
a halfpenny per pound, and the other half
nothing; we find that 24,000,000 pounds
weight of rags and other Paper-fturT is an-
nually manufactured into Paper.*

One reafon that may be afligned is, that
they are not fo carefully gathered as in
other countries; but another and more
powerful one is, that the greater!: part of
the English families are able to live more
comfortably than the people of other coun-
tries, and think the faving of rags not worth
their notice, or think them of fo trifling a
value, that a great part is burnt or deftroyed.
But, as I have before Hated, that the Britifh
nation is in part indebted for their wealth,
and pre-eminence above all other nations,
to the manufacture of Paper, and the art

of

* The importation of rags from the continent, in
1799, was 6,307,1170.

[ 230 ]

of printing, writing, and drawing; and as
it is certain, that the quantity of Paper
manufactured in England is the next to that
of wool, cotton, and linen, and employs not
only many thousands of hands in the mills,
but gives bread to ftationers, authors, prin-
ters, bookfellers, and bookbinders, which
are fo numerous with their dependents, that
it may be taken for granted, that this ma-
nufacture gives livelihood to a greater num-
ber of perfons than any other ; every head
of a family mould therefore consider this
branch of commerce and revenue as a na-
tional concern, and follow the example of
the Dutch families, who lay by all old rags
clean warned, and fell them aflbrted annu-
ally to the agents of the Paper-mills: and
there can be no doubt but the faving of rags
and wafte Paper in England would equally
contribute to the advantage of this valuable
manufacture.

By the act of parliament, which prohibits,

under

C 231 ]

under a penalty, the burial of the dead in
. any other drefs than wool, may be faved
about 250,000 pounds weight of linen an-
nually*; which in other countries perifh in
the grave: but this is of little confequence
relative to the great consumption of rags,
and does not form more than one hun-
dredth part.

The want of this article obliges us there-
fore to import the quantity required for our
mills from abroad, until other fubftitutes
can be converted to anfwer the purpofe of
rags: till thofe are brought to perfection
and generally adopted : and until the Paper
manufactured thereof is univerfally pro-
tected, by every well-wiiher to his country.
The value of the Paper manufactured in
1784 in England has been ftated to amount
to 800,000/. and it will not be over-rated

Q. if

* Calculating that Out of thirty perfons living, on the
average, one dies annually, and that onepound weight of
linen might be ufed at every burial, and the number of
inhabitants feven millions and a half.

[ 232 ]

if we give the prefent annual value, by rea-
fon of the increafe of the ufe of Paper and
of its price, at one million and a half fter-
ling; which, after it has gone through ths
hands of the ftationers, and is finimed by
the authors, artifts, engravers, printers, and
bookbinders, and put up for fale by the
book and print-fellers and ftationers receives
fuch additional value, that its amount may
be eftimated at fome millions more.

Parliament has therefore, for the fupport
of this manufacture enacted, that rags, old
nets, and ropes (which are ufed for manu-
facturing pafte-boards, wrappers, and pack*
ing-paper), can be imported duty free ; and
laft feflion, it likewife allowed the free im-
portation of all wafte-paper, provided it is
torn into pieces fo that it cannot be ufed
otherwife than for being re-manufactured.
Thefe me'afures will in fome degree aflift the
Manufacture recently eftablimed for that
purpofe ; but notwithstanding cannot fuffi-

ciently

[ 233 ]

ciently obviate the lamentable fcarcity, and
greatly reduce the price of rags and other
paper-ftufT: the confumption of the Paper
manufactured of the latter materials (old
nets and ropes) has likewife increafed very
much, and rauft be the more confiderable as
the commerce of this country is extended.

Thefe circumftances, and the eftablilh-
ment of the Regenerating-Paper-Manufaor
ture,* brought to my recollection what
Bruyfet, Levier de Lille, Fonde, Gleditch,
Greaves, Guetard, Klaproth, Linnasus, Clarus
Mayer, Reaumur, Schaffer, Seba, Stakel,
Strange, and other fcientific men had no-
ticed, and their ideas on fubftitutes for paper-
materials. Thefe authors have dated, that
as cotton, flax, and hemp, are the origin of

paper

* The re-manufa£turing of Paper has been long prac-
tifed by the Chinefe ; and there is, in one of the fuburbs
of Pekin, a confiderable Paper-manufa&ure for that pur-
pofe, which gives employ to numerous perfons who
collect wafte-paper, which is purcbafed at a low price.

Q 2

[ 234* J

and rags, other vegetables of a tender and
pliable nature might probably be converted
into a mucilaginous pulp, and adopted as a
substitute for rags in the manufacture of
Paper; and farther, that thofe vegetables
that are of a brittle and harfli nature, but
which can be obtained in large quantities
and at moderate prices, might by art and
perfeverance be made tender, without de-
ftroying that quality which is neceflary to
be retained in paper-Huff. It is a grand
defideratum, that thefe fuggeftions mould be
brought into effect; and it is furprizing that
the obfervations of the authors above quoted
mould not have been earlier attended to by
fcientific men, or rather by intelligent Paper-
makers, who had the road thus opened to
them for their inveftigation : for, mould any
man have difcovered a commodity, which
could be cheaply and plentifully fupplied
in this country, as a fubftitute for rags, <Scc,
to mould unexceptionable Paper, fuch a
man would amply merit the approbation and

encou-

I 235 ]

encouragement of the public, notwithstand-
ing the jealoufy of thofe, who are acquainted
with, and followed the hints of the above-
mentioned authors, but failed in the fame
purfuit.*

Dr. Schaffer, it is true, worked with per-
severance, induftry, and ardour, to prove
that numerous vegetables were qualified to
make Paper, and his fame will be immorta-
lized ;

* Many hints have been given by others, and princi-
pally by an ingenious literary gentleman, long refident
in India, to J. Sewell, of Cornhill, on the ufefulnefs of
many Eaft-India plants, not only for making Paper, but
likewife for the manufacture of linen cloth, fail cloth,
and cordage; but they have not yet been attended to,
notwithftanding Mr. Sewell has neither fpared expenfe
nor trouble to propagate thefe hints. Shall now a perfon
who purfues fuch hints, and is by oerfeverance fuccefsful,
in making ufelefs articles valuable in manufactures and
commerce, for the benefit of his country, not be enti-
tled to merit, and the fupport of the publick, becaufe
the firft idea has been communicated to him by others ?
Linen cloth has been manufactured from flax durir. t
feveral centuries, before the art of making fine lace of
the fame fubftance has been difcovered : this improve.,
raent was neverthelefs confidered as a new invention

[ 236 ]

lized ; but, notwithftanding that this author
theorized on the fubjecl. with great ability,
he accompliihed nothing fatisfadtory by his
experiments, which only tended to prove
that various vegetables could probably be fo
mollified as to make ufeful Paper with the
addition of a fmall quantity of rags : neither
himfelf, nor any perfon who has followed
him, has ever been able to make it at all
without rags, or, even by mixture, fit for
printing, writing, paper-hanging, and other
purpofes : it has only been fit for packing
paper, and always brittle.

Travellers affirm that the Chinefe and Ja-
panefe ufe a lye in their , Paper-manufacto-
ries, by which they convert plants, the bark
of trees, and feveral other vegetables, into a
pulp,* which is afterwards moulded into a
large and beautiful Paper : this Paper, how-
ever, notwithftanding its apparent fmooth-

nefs,

* All Paper made in the province of Che-Kyang i»
manufactured from the ftraw of rice and other grain,

[ 237 ]

nefs, is very liable to break. No author has
fatisfaclorily defcribed the ingredients that
are ufed in making this lye, or the farther
procefs that vegetables muft undergo, before
they are fufficiently macerated and reduced
to a ftate to be formed into Paper: and all
farther information has been cautioufly con-
cealed from us.

Nature, which is ever bountiful in fup-
plying all our wants, has not only provided
us with numerous materials for making
Paper, but alfd ihewn us in what manner
vegetable fubftances may be formed into
Paper, by the operation of Nature itfelf, of
which G. A. Senger at Reck has given us
knowledge in his Mojl Ancient Record of
the Fabrication of Paper, difcovered in Na-
ture. It is the plant which has received the
name of conferva from Linnasus and other
naturalifts who followed Pliny ; which is to
be found plentifully on the top of the wa-
ter in brooks, rivulets, ponds, ditches, &c.

Men

[238 ]

Men are little inclined to afcribe their
knowledge to any other eaufe than to their
own invefligation, and moft difcoveries have
therefore, by manifold and exquifite im-
provements, obtained, by our genius, the
appearance which might lead us to con-
fider all the perfections to which arts, fci*
ences, and manufactures are arrived, as if
they had been invented and brought into
existence entirely by ourfelves, without the
aid of various accidental occurrences in the
ceconomy of Nature. All thefe difcoveries
neverthelefs derive their origin from nothing
elfe but the appearances in Nature, and
men are confequently but the imitators of
Nature, although in the moft laudable fenfe.

This would require a more particular
and more extended invefligation than I am
willing to deliver ; and an expert philoso-
pher would only be fit for fuch an under-
taking, in order to fupprefs the prejudice
and fclf-conceit of thofe who appropriate

their

[ 239 ]

their inventions alone to their own extended
wifdom ; and to exhibit men in their feeble-
nefs, being entirely dependent on Nature.

Nature, which lays open to every eye,
is the moft excellent fchool of all for
acquiring wifdom ; lhe forms the philofo-
pher, and is the firft channel by which the
artift and chemift obtain knowledge and
ability; an aftonifhing light dreams forth
from the active ftage of Nature into our
organs, an,d her aim is to promote, ftep by
ftep, decency and perfection in the moral
world, if attended to, comprehended, and
properly applied. It appears, therefore,
ftrange to the itricl: obferver of the ,pheno-
mena of Nature, why fo many of our arts
have not been fooner difcovered and brought
into praclice.

I do not look for thefe caufes in the
myfteries wherein Nature often cloaks her
work, but rather in man himfelf, and in

r his

[ 240 ]

his remiflhefs, often occafioned by circum-
ilances, and owing to the little attention he
is accuftorried to give to her phenomena. *

Many of our learned men, in order to
rectify and enlarge their ideas, confine their
diligence and obfervations only to their
books, neglecting to caft a penetrating eye
on the fecret and active operations of Na-
ture ; and a man of a fearclung fpirit may
be fometimes mifted to afpire to fuperna-
tural things, and live and act; in the {pecu-
lations of an imaginary fphere, and leave,
according to his imagination, the lower
regions to ideots. Nature is the heft
teacher : the information obtained from
books muft be confidered as fecondary ; and
hints given to an active mind can only be
brought to perfection by combining the
inftruction received from books with thofe
which we obtain from Nature in greater
perfection. To this we muft join the incli-
nations which feem to be - natural to us,

that

[ 241 ]

that we fcarcely look for things of im»
portance in our proximity, but are rather
inclined to fearch for them at a diftance.
Thefe are undeniable grounds why many
hints for valuable difcoveries.have not been
brought to perfection and practice.

Mr. Senger ftates that he became unex-
pectedly acquainted with the natural pre*
paration and fabrication of Paper. He fays :
" In my walks on the borders of a fmall
" brook, I found both mores on the fide
" of the hedges covered with a flimy
*' fubftance, which the not long be-
" fore overflowed brook had depofited.
*f The furface of the water was covered
" anew with a yellowifh green vege-
" table, and in fuch places where the
" brook had bendings, lay confiderable
*' quaatities of this fine vegetable produc-
** tion piled up in heaps, which gave addi-
" tional beauty to the blooming fliores of
*' the flowing brook. This appearance,

*« and

[ 24-2 ]

'** and the thought of an ufeful application,
*' attracted me into their intereft, and de*
f* termined me to examine it without de«
" lay, in order to difcover its value, becaufe
" I could not perfuade myfelf that thrifty
u Nature could have brought forth fo much
" beauty and fuch an aftonifhing great
" quantity of fleecy matter to no ufe or
purpofe.

a

it

i( This vicinity was for many days the
place of my refort, and the little brook
ie appeared to me to be a rich fountain,
" which concealed plenty of matter to in-
" creafe knowledge, which might lead to
** fome new difcoveries, and in courfe of
'* time recompenfe my endeavours with
u the moll pleafing furprife.

" This covering extended on the furface
" of the water, was not only a refting-
" place for infects of various forts, and a
u well fecured (tore-houfe for their broods,

but

[ 243 ]

*' but as Nature intends every where to
« give multiplicity of advantages, I ex-
" perienced very foon that it contained a
f* proper fluff for making Paper, and what
" is more furprifing, a Paper prepared
" by Nature alone, without the affiftance
*' of imitating procefTes.

" This peculiar web contains innume-
" rable fleecy parts of vegetation, which
" are generated, in the firft part of the
" fpring, on ponds and other ftanding wa-
" ters; they detach themfelves from the
f* bottom, and rife on the furface, where
♦* they appear as a handfome green and
*f yellow covering. After thefe fleecy
" particles have remained for fome
¥ time on the watery mirror; by the
*?■ heat of the fun, and by the "changing
** degrees of cold and warmth of the wa-
*' ter, they become more united and felted
" together, bleached, and at laft turned
" into a tough Paper-like covering. Or,

if

a

[ 244 ]

" if this fleecy fubftance is mixed together j'
<e and carried away by fudden inundations,
occafioned by heavy rains, and depofited
" on the fhores, it appears then like a thin
" jelly or flime, which, after it has under*
" gone feveral changes naturally produced .
" by the contents of air and water, turns
" into a kind of Paper, which refembles
" the common Paper ; or, where it has
" been produced upon clean water, it is
M not unlike a fuperior Paper, of which
" fome may be gathered nearly as white
" as writing Paper."

Mud we not, with humble fubmiffion,
ftill more revere the hand of the all-wife
Creator in the works of Nature, when we
find that me proceeds in this operation in
the fame manner as the Paper-maker in his
mill, when he attempts to prepare Paper
out of rags. This fleecy fubftance rifes
from the bottom of the water, and feparates
from its origin and vegetation, which is the

firft

[ 245 ]

firft procefs; thefe materials are then pre-
pared upon the furface of the water by the
apparently invifible contents of all waters,
which are in fome more,in otherslefs; by the
fofteft of all waters, rain ; by the refreshing
air of the night ; by the heat of the fun ;
and by glutinous and oily fubftances. The
waves or motion of the water reduces
it into the fmalleft particles, without de-
ftroying its texture, like a pulp made of
rags when ground in the Paper-engine.
The grafly more receives at laft this Paper-
ftufT manufactured by Nature alone, like
the artift, who fcoops in the Paper-mill
the prepared materials upon frames, out of
the vat, and depoilts it upon hairy felts,
in order to prefs and dry it. Mr. Senger is
therefore entitled to the thanks cf men,
who too often overlook the moft ingenious
works of Nature, by giving them hints to
fix their thoughts on this phenomenon,
which reprefents to us fo clearly the origi-
nal fabrication of Paper, and hands down

to

[ 240 ]

to us the firft and mod ancient records
thereof; in the ineffectual purfuit of which
our anceftors have fpent many centuries,
and could never difcover it to its full extent.
It was left to the laft year of the 1 8th cen-
tury, to prove to the world that a ftrong
Paper can be manufactured from all vegeta-
ble fubftances, on following thofe rays which
Nature has laid open to our eyes.

It is natural to enquire how this phce-
nomenon could remain fo long hidden
from the fearching eye of men ; or, if it
was known, why did they not make ufe
thereof; and learn from it, the ufeful
art of making Paper? The more fo, as this
phcenomenon extends itfelf over the whole
furface of the globe ; and as a thinking
man, who pofiefies a fpeculating fpirit, with
a great mind not to relax his purfuits by
difappointment, but to perfevere in his
undertakings, may be by it fo eafily led
to the difcovery of the artificial manufac-
ture

t 247 3

ture of Paper, after fo many hints have been
thrown out by the before quoted author?,
Have not many years expired fince Dr,
SchafTer produced a Paper mixed with rag-:,
made from a kind of vegetable which he
calls water-wool, and which was this Conferva }

This river Paper is completely fabricated
by Nature, fo as to be fit for writing or
printing, if only taken from the furface of
the water when ripe, (which is to be ascer-
tained by taking a handful, fqueezing the
water out, and finding it fibrous,) hung
up and dried, and fmoothed with an iron*

It remains now to (late which kind of
Conferva is the mod ufeful for making Paper,
and may be plentifully obtained. Linnaeus
fays that there are 21 forts of Conferva,
which 1 mean not to difpute, but to name
thofe that are the fitteft for the before-
mentioned purpofe, which are : Conferva
rhularis; Conferva bullofa; Conferva reticu-

s l&tis,

C 2*3 ]

latis. Thefe three can be gathered in
abundance in fummer and autumn, the
time when ripe, purified, and united by
the warmth of the fun, by means of oily
fubftances formed likewife in the water by
Nature. Mr. Senger fays, that two chil*
dren have gathered one thoufand weight
in one day.

I have heretofore ftated the want felt
by fociable men in the earlieft ages, to
difcover means by which might be pre-
served to pofterity ufeful and notable oc-
currences of time, the progrefs of arts and
fciences, and in general to facilitate traffic
amongft men. Tradition, which for a
feries of years was a fubftitute for writing,
did but little in comparifon to this art ;
many things of great importance were for-
gotten ; many valuable fciences were loft,
mutilated, or but confufedly handed down
to pofterity. After letters were invented,
a beginning was made to give, as it were,

fpcech

[ 2*9 ]

fpeech to rocks and metals, and to engrave
©n them memorable events. By degrees,
art facilitated this gigantic mode, and taught
to exchange this uncommon bulky manner
of writing into an eafler method, and to
tranfcribe it on tables, which were fuper-
feded by metals, bones, and wood, until
fkins, barks, &c. were made ufe of. Cen-*
turies elapfed before a more convenient
material to write upon was difcovered ; and
many unfuccefsful experiments were made,
and long years of labour were given up by
the greateft men of fcience, before the dif-
covery of the Egyptian Papyrus, and the
art of making Paper from cotton and linen
rags was invented.

The linen-rag Paper, which has fo much
improved and benefited mankind, was by
degrees employed to other purpofes than
writing, and naturally very much encreafed
the price of rags, which makes the Paper
fo fcarce, that fufncient quantities cannot be
s 2 obtained

[ 250 ]

obtained for the ufe of the numerous print-
ing-offices, not only in England, but in all
other enlightened countries; and accounts
that have been received from various parts
of the Continent ihew that the price of
rags will augment rather than abate. Con-
siderations on thefe circumftances induced
me to make further trials, and endeavour
to accomplish that which had been thought
impoflible by others, and which had baffled
the attempts of many ingenious men, not-
withstanding the road had been opened to
them by Nature, and the hints of men.
My labours and perfeverance have been
crowned with fuccefs.

I have had the fatisfaction to witnefs the
eftablifhment of an extenfive Paper-manu-
factory, fince the firft of May 1800, at
the Neckinger Mill, Bermondfey, where
my invention of re-manufacturing Paper
is carried on with great fuccefs, and
where there are already more than 700

reams

t 251 ]

reams weekly manufactured , of perfectly
clean and white Paper, made without any
addition of rags, from old wafte, written and
printed Paper ; by which the Publick has
already been benefited fo far, that the price
of Paper has not rifen otherwife than by
the additional duty thereupon, and the en-
creafed price of labour. And it will not
be many weeks before double that quantity
will be manufactured at the faid mill.

Thus far fucceeding, my other more
extended views, in afliduoufly endeavour-
ing to manufacture the moft perfect Paper
from ftraw, wood, and other vegetables, have
been likewife fuccefsful. And I am able
to produce to the publick very flrong and
fine Paper, made thereof, without any ad-
dition of other known Paper-fluff, notwith-
standing I have not yet had the advantage
of making it in a mill, regularly built for
fuch a new undertaking. The Paper where-
upon

[ 252 ]

upon this is printed is an undeniable proof.*
It is however only of an inferior quality,
being made from the flraw in the ftate it
comes from the farm yard, without aflbrting
the weeds, and thofe parts of the flraw
which have been coloured by the weather.
I have ufed this kind of Paper on purpofe
to demonftrate the progrefs of fo fingular
an undertaking, and to prove its poffibility
to the world, notwithstanding the opinion
of many fcientific men, particularly that of
the ingenious Breitkopf at Leipzic, that
Paper made from ftraw cannot be ufed for
printing. This fpecimen, and others of a
much finer quality which have been ma-
nufactured, leave no doubt, that, when the
manufactory has been regularly eftablifhed
with the necelTary implements, I ihall make
flraw Paper in as great perfection as any
made from rags ; and by feveral trials which
I have made to change the yellow colour
into cream colour, and white, it feems to be

unquef-
* Part of this edition is printed on Straw Paper.

r 2" ]

unquestionably practicable, which will ex-
tend its confumption, and remove the
prejudices which are generally cherifhed
againfi new difcoveries; notwithstanding
its natural colour is not only pleafing, but
grateful to the eye for writing and printing,
principally for mufick-notes by candle-light.
Copper-plate printers affert that it takes
the imprefllon fuperior to French copper-
plate paper, and it has a beautiful effect in
landscapes and pictures, for drawing, ancj
paper-hangings.

In my former edition I faid, (p. 79) " I
flatter myfelf that my exertions will meet
with the approbation and fupport of the
community at large." Since which my
expectations have been gratified, not only
by the fanction of the Jegiflature, who have
]fc>een pleafed to pafs an act of parliament;
by which my undertaking has been greatly
facilitated, fo that I am now able to enV
felifh this manufacture to a confiderable

extent,

[ 254 ]

extent, but alfo, by the approbation and
fupport of perfons of the firft refpectability,
who have come forward to patronize it;
which is the ftrongeft teft the publick can
require of its general utility, and national
importance ; the laft of which is certainly of
much greater extenfion than by many is
conceived ; becaufe, by the eftablimment
of a large manufacture of this kind, nume-
rous hands of both fexes, and of all ages,
will be employed and gain their livelihood,
who now are, or otherwife might become,
a burthen to the parifhes in which they re-
fide; it will increafe the revenue; it will
prevent the necefsity of fending large fums
of money out of this kingdom, for the pur-
chafing of rags ;* it will render feveral of

the

* If from 5,coo to 6,000 loads of draw will be con-
verted annually into Paper, ufed for Paper-hangings, it
will be equal to the quantity of rags imported from the
continent in 1799. A great partofthofe rags are ufed
for that kind of Paper (elephant,) that being of a ftronger
texture than Englilh rags. And as Paper-hangings made

from

t 255 J

the commodities to be employed i» this
manufacture more valuable and ufeful than
they have hitherto been, (many of which
have been thrown away) which of courfe is
interefting to the landed property of this
country, as the value of land muft naturally
encreafe ; and it will ultimately reduce the
price of Paper.

But whether or not this country can avail
itfelf of all the advantages that are likely to
refult from a difcovery which promifes to
become fo generally ufeful, muft, in my
humble opinion, intirely depend on thofe
meafures, which the legiflature of this coun-
try fhall in their wifdom think it prudent
to adopt, in order to prevent the difcovery

from

from ftraw Paper may be manufa&ured much cheaper
to the tafte of the people abroad, than they can make
it from rags, this country will be enabled to pro*
vide the whole world with it, at a lower rate than it it
fofjibU to be manufactured from rags y and foreigners
will be neceffitated to fend their money to this country
for the purchafe of iu

S

( 255 ]

from being known to other countries : — a
meafure not undeferving the attention of
the Briti/h government, at this conjuncture/
when the fplendor of its manufactures and
commerce is more envied than at any for-
mer period of our hiftory.

By the fanSlion with which the legijlaturt
has favoured my difcovery ; by the fupport of
men of fortune and refpettability who have
come forward to facilitate my endeavours to
eftablifh this manufacture on fuch a fcale
as to make it of importance to the publick ;
and by the approbation with which it has
been honoured by numerous perfons ; I flatter
myfelf to overcome all prejudices againft
this new invented wood, fraw, and vegetable
Paper, and that I mall, by my unremitting
perfeverance, bring the difcovery to the
greateft perfection, and that my efforts will
render it eligible for general ufe : then the
opinions and judgments, which are incon-
fiderately or envioufly circulated to the

injury

t 257 ]

injury of many new inventions and efta-
blishments, will be turned to its advantage,
and promote its profperity, which are the
moft effectual means, not only to prevent
a further rife of the price of Paper, but con*
tribute to its reduction.

It will be productive of the greatett fa-
tisfaction, if, by farther researches, I can
accomplish the object I have in view,
namely, that of manufacturing Paper from
vegetables, for the purpofe of making bank-
notes, which by the experiments I have
made I am convinced I fhall be able to
effect. A difcovery of fuch defcription mult
be a fource of great and pleafant reflection
to every philanthropic mind, fince the opr
portunities of forgery on the Bank of Eng-
land, which at prefent exift, will be moft
effectually done away, and the publick mind
relieved from hearing of fuch crimes, and of
the executions which enfue from the con-
viction of the offenders. That fuch will be

the

C 258 ]

the good confequences resulting to the com-
munity, from manufacturing Paper of the
faid materials for the before-mentioned
purpofe, muft be manifeft, becaufe the
mixture of vegetables from which the Paper
would be made might remain a fecret, if
the neceflary meafures for that purpofe are
adopted; confequently no forgery could
henceforth be committed on the Bank, as
long as fuch Paper fhould be ufed in making
bank-notes, becaufe the counterfeiting of
the Paper cannot take place, as long as
the materials from which it is made is un-
known, and as long as the Patent granted by
His Majejiy is in force.

APPENDIX.

[ 259 ]

APPENDIX.

AS an Appendix to this little Tract,
I think it proper to fubmit a few
more remarks on the National Impor-
tance of difcovering materials which
can be converted into Paper, and grow
fufficiently abundant in Great Britain,
without the neceflity of importing them
from foreign countries.

The following lines are printed upon
Paper made from Wood alone, the
produce of this country, without any
intermixture of rags, wafte paper, bark,
flraw, or any other vegetable fubftance,
T from

t 260 ]

from which Paper might be, or has
hitherto been manufactured; and of
this the moft ample testimony can be
given, if necefTary.

Having thus far fucceeded in my re*
fearches, to make an ufeful Paper
from one kind of Wood, I doubt not,
but, that I mail find many others equally
eligible for the fame purpofe, of which
I truft it will be in my power, within
a few weeks, to give indifputable
proof that my expectations have been
well founded, and that I have not
cherifhed a vifionary opinion.

Hiftory furnifhes us with numerous
examples of one difcovery giving birth
to others, and, if my fuccefs of hav-
ing encreafed the quantity of Paper
materials, by rendering thefe applica-
ble to that which have never been
before applied to fuch a purpofe,

mould

[ 251 ]

ihould incite active and induftrious
artifts, to make farther improvements in
their various manufactures, my feelings
will be amply gratified. Various hints
may be fuggefled to thofe who are
already acquainted with the properties
of Paper, when palled in lamina on
each other; it may, by this means,
be made to form a fubftance, as dura-
ble and more impenetrable than oak.

Having long admired the celebrated
manufacture of Mr. Clay, at Birming-
ham, who has demonftrated to what per-
fection and beauty it has been brought,
it will, in the courfe of time, perhaps
not be furprifing to find, that objects
of greater confequence will engage
their attention in the fame purfuit,
and prove, that the properties from
fucceffive layers of Paper, may be
found a fubftitute for many purpofes,
t 2 for

f 262 ]

for which at prefent foreign Wood is
required.

One of the greateft obftacles to the
improvement and extenfion of this
art has been probably the fcarcity of
the raw materials. Now that thefe are
found at home in fufficient abundance,
means may be found to fupply manu-
factures with any quantity required, at
reduced prices.

It may probably be ultimately proved,
that Paper thus prepared, will be a
lighter, neater, and more durable co-
vering for buildings of all kinds, and
it is equally true, that the ingredients,
with which the cement can be com-
posed, will render this fubftance not
only incombuftible, bnt more durable
than dates, tiles, (which in the courfc
of time become brittle) and wood in

it

[ 263 ]

its natural ftate, and incorruptible by
infects. "Who can fay that coach-
makers, chair-makers, and cabinet-
makers, will not make ufe of it for
carriages, chairs, and elegant houfehold
furniture, and reflect that a fubftance
pofTefling fuch fuperior properties ought
to be preferred; having flexibility,
hardnefs, and capability of being worked
with infinite greater neatnefs and luftre
than wood, which is fo much affected
by the air and weather. Converting
wood, ftraw, and other vegetable
fubftances into Paper, may there-
fore be rendered ufeful for a vari-
ety of purpofes; and the fubftance
of the Wood Paper on which thefe
lines are printed, (which is the firfl
attempt to make it in a quantity)
exhibits an indifputable proof, that
ufeful Paper may be manufactured
from the hardeft part of wood alone,
deftitute of its pith or bark; and, if

any

[ 2<M 3

any of the fuggeftions here ftated, as
to the application of the manufactured
material mould be thought reasonable,
experiments of fome able manufacturers
will prove, that this Paper can be
again converted into a fubftance, more
hard and durable than any wood of
natural growth.

Confidering, in its full extent, the
numerous ufes to which the difcovery
of making Paper from wood, ftraw and
other vegetables, which always can be
obtained in this country at moderate
prices, can be applied, it is certainly
an invention that merits attention
and fupport. If only fit for the ma-
nufacture of inferior forts of Paper,
and Paper-hangings, this country will
be enabled to cope with the whole
world in this fpecies of commerce, on
the mofl advantageous terms, and to

enrich

[ Q6S ]

enrich herfelf, by opening this new
fource of trade, very lucrative to the
revenue, and allowing the manufactured
commodity to be fold for Iefs than the
prefent price of Paper; whilfl, at the
fame time, it will make feveral ma-
terials* more valuable, and, by giv-
ing employment to thoufands of wo-
men and children, thereby eftablifh an
influx of real wealth into this country.

The wifdom of the legiflature lias
rendered it necefTary that the fpeci-
fication of every patent ihould be made
public within the fpace of twenty-
eight days, which has been fometimes
extended to fix months. The patentee's
benefit exifts for fourteen years, and
is extremely well protected by the law
againft the infringement of its privileges,
by the inhabitants of Great Britain ; but
it appears very extraordinary, that

every

* Saw-duft, wood-fhavings, old mattings, &c.

'[ 266 ]
every patent is open for the inspection
of foreigners, and that the patentee
remains unprotected with refpect to
them. A pamphlet has been fufFered
to be published monthly, fince the
year 1794, which defcribes not only
the exifting patents of the country,
but contains complete drawings and
defcriptions of new-invented ma-
chines. This pamphlet has been, and
will be, immediately tranflated into
the continental languages; a practice
which has, no doubt, . proved highly
detrimental to the revenue and com-
mercial intereft of this country.

If a patent is obtained for an inge-
nious invention, which may have coft
the author many years intenfe labour
and itudy, and the refult produces
great national wealth by the manu-
facture and exportation of the commo-
dity, the profpects may be clouded in

an

f 261 ]

an hour, and all expectation baffled
by foreigners reading the Specification,
who, by erecting iimilar manufactures
abroad, under greater advantages,*
deprive the country of the revenue-
and commerce. If this fubjecl: was
duly weighed, it furely might be
remedied. It may be afked, why a
patent is to be openly exemplified be-
fore its term is expired ? for, as it can
be of no ufe to the inhabitants of
this country, during the fpace of four-
teen years, for what purpofe is it ex-
pofed? and why are foreigners per-
mitted to reap the benefits to which
this country is only entitled? It is
undeniable, that it operates as a per-
petual discouragement to the future
efforts of genius, preventing monied
men from carrying the moft valuable dif-
v coveries

* They do not want to fpend money to bring the inven-
tion, to perfe&ion; and manual labour, building, and rent »
cheaper on the Continent.

[ 268 ]

eoyeries into effect. The doubtfulnefs
of fuccefs alone fufficiently damps the
ardour, perfeverance, and exertions
neceflarily required in the purfuit of
fkilful and laborious inquiries ; but,
having fucceeded to his utmoft wifhes
and after having incurred very injuri-
ous expenfes in the profecution of
his defign, he is foiled in all his hopes
of compensation, by the expofure of
the means through which the difco-
very has been effected. This confi-
deration alone ought to weigh with
thofe by whom this evil can be reme-
died to the individual. But, much
as it may be lamented, this injury
bears no proportion to the lorTes which
the revenue and commerce fuffer,

It therefore appears impolitic in the
Jaft degree to expofe the exemplifica-
tion of a patent to public difclofure,
&nd to be a dejideratum of fuch in-
finite

[ 269 ]

finite importance, that the Legiflature
may think of fome method to prevent
the art from being divulged in a patent,
and being purloined by foreigners, who
are jealous of the greatnefs of the
manufactures, commerce, and naviga-
tion, of Great Britain*

The importance of this is fufficiently
obvious by daily experience ; and it feems
very aftonifhing that the Legiflature
has not before taken it up as a general
meafure ; as it is not only a great hard-
fhip, but an act of injuftice, that the
people of this country fliould be retrained
from the ufe of inventions, for which
patents have been granted,' for a term
of fourteen years, which foreigners can
immediately avail themfelves of abroad,
by procuring copies of the fpecifications
inrolled here, which it is notorious they
are in the daily habit of doing, and
which ftands proved in the Report of
u 2 laft

[ 270 ]
laft Sefljons of Parliament by the Com-
mittee, to be confidered by them as a
matter of great importance, from their
remitting money to Bankers in this king-
dom to pay perfons for collecting and
fending over particulars of our Difcoveries
and Manufactures. One cannot help ob-
ferving the impolicy of that legiflative
act, which declares it a crime for any fub-
ject or other perfon in this realm to fend
abroad any machine or other apparatus
ufed in our manufactures: yet permits
written and printed copies of the parti-
culars of inventions, and prints of machi-
nery, to be daily tranfmitted abroad : nay,
fuffers a work monthly to be publifhed
in this metropolis, avowing itfelf to be
a defcription of inventions and difco-
veries, and the mode in which they
are effected, together with the plates
of all the machinery, which publication
is tranflated abroad in different lan-
guages. Is it to be contended that a

fkilful

[ 271 ]

fkilful mechanic cannot make a machine
from a drawing and complete defcrip-
tion of machinery, but only from the ac-
tual machine itfelf ? The only objection
that feems to oppofe itfelf to this mea-
fure is, that it would be a hard/hip
to punifh a man for an infringement
of an invention, the mode of carrying
on which, he has not an opportunity
of infpecting before committing the act,,
and therefore could not intentionally have
infringed, but of which he would have
had the previous infpection, if the fpe-
cification was inrolled as directed. The
anfwer to which is, that particular and
private inconvenience ought to give way
to general good ; but here, (by my
patent) that facrifice is not required to
be made, and I think there will not any
real inconvenience be fuftained by this
meafure being generally adopted for all
patents which may be granted.

My

C 272 ]

My patent being for making Paper
from Straw, &c. during the term of
fourteen years; no perfon has any right
during that period to make it from
fuch raw materials as are defcribed in
my patent; and I have proved to the
Committee of both Houfes of Parliament
by fatisfactory evidence, that the per-
fect Paper exhibited there was made
folely from the fubftances mentioned in
the patent : but, fuppofing a perfon to
have difcovered a new mode of making
Paper from Straw, much more ufeful
and beneficial than the prefent, and that
it was neceffary he fhould fee the exem-
plification of mine, to fiiew that his is
original, and not an infringement on my
invention, he has only to apply to the
Lord High-Chancellor, whom I hum-
bly fubmit ihould have the control over
the keepers of my exemplification, and
on verifying the facts, he would imme-
diately direct an infpection. I truil: the

Legiflature

[ *™ ]

Legiflature will not efteem unworthy
of their notice my obfervation for the
benefit of the country, revenue and
commerce,

*INIS.

.V *

y^-Vtf* 'Jp

'■*#

• \